The managing director and chief executive officer of Zichis Agro Allied Industries Plc, Anthonia Akabusi, has offloaded 5 million shares in the company in a transaction likely to attract investor attention given the stock’s extraordinary and volatile trading history this year.
According to a regulatory disclosure, Akabusi sold the shares on May 11 at ₦36.69 per share, implying a transaction value of about ₦183.45 million.
The latest insider sale comes months after the Nigerian Exchange suspended trading in Zichis shares following one of the most dramatic post-listing rallies seen on the NGX Growth Board in recent years.
Zichis was listed by introduction on the Nigerian Exchange on January 20 at ₦1.81 per share, valuing the company at roughly ₦1.19 billion at the time. But within barely a month of listing, the stock surged to ₦17.36, representing a rise of more than 770 percent and triggering market-wide scrutiny over the pace of the appreciation.
On February 23, the Nigerian Exchange halted trading in the company’s shares over what it described as extraordinary or abnormal price movements, according to an earlier Pluboard report.
The suspension lasted about one month before NGX Regulation lifted the restriction on March 23 following a review. As part of the process, the exchange implemented a price reset mechanism tied to a one-for-one bonus issue and dividend adjustment, effectively resetting the stock price from ₦17.36 to about ₦8.58, as previously reported by Pluboard.
Yet the rally resumed almost immediately after trading reopened.
Following an initial decline, Zichis shares rebounded sharply again over subsequent weeks, eventually climbing to ₦40.35 on Tuesday — meaning the stock had risen by over 2,000 percent from its original January listing price.
Shortly after the suspension was lifted, company insiders collectively offloaded about ₦868 million worth of shares.
The latest disposal by the company’s CEO is likely to intensify investor focus on insider sentiment, liquidity patterns and the sustainability of the stock’s extraordinary rise since listing.
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