Access Holdings Plc’s banking subsidiary Access Bank, sold part of its Ghanaian subsidiary, raising about N23.9 billion as it works to bring its foreign investments within Nigerian legal limits.
However, its own accounts and the Ghana Stock Exchange give three different figures for the size of the stake sold.
The heading of Note 46 in the group’s nine-month financial statements describes a 5.1% disposal, however the text below it says Access Bank Plc sold 4.8%, or 8,349,485 shares, in September on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
The GSE filing says 12,085,318 shares, or 7.44%, were sold on July 15, cutting the stake to 85.96% from 93.40%. The accounts themselves put the remaining stake at 88.60%.
Gross proceeds were N23.89 billion, or about $17.9 million at N1,335.50 per dollar, on MoneyCentral calculations.
Net proceeds after costs of N334 million were N23.55 billion, although the written explanation in the note gives N23.61 billion.
Access kept control of the bank, so no gain appears in the group income statement. Instead, the buyers’ share is recorded as a non-controlling interest, and the difference goes straight to equity.
In Access Bank Plc’s standalone books, where the shares sold were carried at only N1.65 billion, the bank booked a gain of N21.96 billion.
The note also contradicts itself on the accounting. It gives N9.22 billion both as the increase in non-controlling interest and as the difference credited to equity.
On 5.1% of Access Bank Ghana’s N282.07 billion net assets, the non-controlling interest works out to about N14.39 billion and the equity gain to about N9.17 billion, on MoneyCentral calculations.
The cash flow notes treat the proceeds as a non-cash “consideration receivable”, which raises the question of whether the money has been received. The disposal reserve also fell N13.59 billion, to a deficit of N12.05 billion.
Access sold at about N2,861 a share, valuing Access Bank Ghana at about 1.66 times net assets if 5.1% is correct, on MoneyCentral calculations. Access Bank Ghana’s shares fell 33.21% in September, the exchange’s second-worst performance, according to the GSE’s monthly summary, and closed at GH₵20.79 on October 30, according to Mansa Markets.
The sale is part of Access’s effort to meet the limit on investments in foreign subsidiaries under Section 19(8)(c) of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act.
In its FY2025 results, the group said dividends were restricted by statutory limits on investment in foreign banking subsidiaries and that remediation was under way within an agreed timeline.
Access also plans capital recalls from six banking subsidiaries. A sale of about N24 billion is unlikely to close the gap on its own, however, meanwhile the audited FY2026 accounts will need to reconcile the 4.8%, 5.1% and 7.44% figures and confirm when the cash arrived.
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