Corporate actions, explained

What a corporate action is

A corporate action is anything a listed company does that changes your shares or your rights as a shareholder: issuing new shares, giving you free ones, splitting them, or paying you cash. The company announces a timetable, the NGX publishes it, and your broker or CSCS handles the mechanics. Your job is knowing which actions need a decision from you and which just happen.

Rights issues: first refusal on new shares

When a company wants to raise money, it often offers new shares to its existing shareholders first, usually at a discount to the market price. That is a rights issue. You typically get three choices: take up the offer (pay for the new shares), sell the rights to someone else, or let them lapse and do nothing.

Doing nothing has a cost: new shares dilute your ownership, so your slice of the company shrinks while others grow theirs. If you cannot or will not pay, selling the rights at least captures their value. Never ignore a rights issue notice; an ignored right is money left on the table.

Bonus issues: free shares

A bonus issue (also called a scrip issue) gives you extra shares free, e.g. one new share for every four you hold. It feels like a gift, and partly it is, but the price adjusts down on the day so your total value stays roughly the same. What changes: you now hold more shares at a lower price each, which can make future dividends and trading more flexible.

Splits and consolidations: repackaging your shares

A share split multiplies your share count and divides the price by the same factor: 100 shares at ₦50 become 500 shares at ₦10. A consolidation does the reverse: fewer shares, higher price each. Either way, the total value of your holding does not change. Companies split to make shares look affordable, or consolidate to lift a very low share price into a more respectable range.

A real example: in October 2026, Sterling Financial Holdings completed a 1-for-10 consolidation. Every 10 old shares became 1 new share, and the price adjusted up roughly tenfold when trading resumed on 7 October 2026. Anyone who held 10,000 shares woke up holding 1,000: same value, new packaging.

Public offers

An already-listed company can also sell shares to the general public to raise capital, as Dangote Refinery is doing ahead of its NGX listing. Anyone with a CSCS account can subscribe through a broker during the offer window. Track live and upcoming offers on the public offers page.

A worked example: rights issue math

You own 1,000 shares at ₦20 each (₦20,000 total). The company announces a 1-for-4 rights issue at ₦15 per share. You are offered 250 new shares costing ₦3,750. Take it up: you now hold 1,250 shares for ₦23,750. Ignore it: you still hold 1,000 shares, but they now represent a smaller slice of a bigger company, and the market price typically adjusts down to reflect the new shares.

What you actually need to do

Watch the timetable. Every corporate action has a qualification date: own the stock before it or you are excluded. The corporate actions page carries the full schedule.

Read the notice. Rights issues and public offers come with an offer document spelling out the price, the ratio, and the deadline. The deadline is real: late acceptances are not taken.

Talk to your broker. Taking up rights or subscribing to an offer goes through your broker. Ask about fees and the exact cutoff time, which is often before the published deadline.

Dividends are corporate actions too, with their own timetable. Read how dividends work next.