- Trust Bank Completes GSE Exit After GH¢4.2m Shareholder Settlement
Trust Bank PLC has delisted its ordinary shares from the Ghana Stock Exchange after investors tendered 3.51m shares under an exit offer sponsored by Solo Dabo Company Limited.
The delisting took effect on Friday, September 25, 2026, bringing an end to trading in the Gambian bank’s shares on Ghana’s capital market.
The offer, priced at GH¢1.20 per share, was made under a tender-offer circular dated August 11 and closed on September 11. Trust Bank said settlement had been completed for all qualifying shareholders who accepted the offer.
“At the close of the Offer, Qualifying Shareholders tendered 3,510,021 shares, representing 47.89% of the 7,328,773 ordinary shares held on the Ghana share register,” the bank said.
At the offer price, the shares tendered carried a total value of approximately GH¢4.21m.
The outcome means that 3.82mn shares, or 52.11 per cent of the holdings on Trust Bank’s Ghana register, were not tendered before the offer closed.
Those remaining shares would have been valued at about GH¢4.58mn if measured at the same GH¢1.20 offer price. The entire Ghana-registered holding had an implied value of almost GH¢8.8m under the tender.
The fact that more than half of the Ghana-registered shares were not submitted to the offer is one of the more significant aspects of the transaction.
It does not necessarily indicate shareholder opposition to the delisting. Some investors may have chosen to retain their exposure to the bank, while others may not have completed the tender process before the deadline. The announcement did not provide a breakdown of the shareholders who declined or failed to participate.
The result nevertheless leaves a substantial body of investors holding shares in a company that will no longer provide them with a trading platform in Ghana.
Trust Bank said its shares would no longer trade on the Ghana Stock Exchange after the effective date of the delisting.
“After 25 September 2026, TBPLC shares will no longer trade on the GSE,” the company said.
Delisting does not extinguish the rights of shareholders who retained their shares. They remain owners of an interest in Trust Bank, but the mechanism through which they can trade that interest will change.
The bank’s Ghana share register will remain open for a three-month transitional period. At the end of that period, the outstanding holdings will be transferred to Trust Bank’s principal share register in The Gambia.
Shareholders seeking to trade during the transition have been directed to contact Universal Merchant Bank PLC, the registrar, or Databank Brokerage Limited, the sponsoring broker.
“The Ghana share register will remain open for a three-month transitional period, after which the holdings will be transferred to TBPLC’s principal share register in The Gambia,” Trust Bank said.
The transfer will place residual Ghanaian shareholders within the bank’s main ownership structure but may also make future trading less straightforward for investors accustomed to the Ghana Stock Exchange.
The company did not state in the announcement what trading arrangements would be available after the three-month transition, nor did it specify the documentation, settlement procedures or possible transaction costs that could apply to Ghana-based shareholders after their holdings move to The Gambia.
These details will matter because ownership and liquidity are different considerations. An investor may continue to own a valuable security while facing greater difficulty in finding a buyer, establishing a transparent market price or completing a transaction.
For minority shareholders, the practical test of the transition will therefore be whether they retain a workable route to sell their shares after the Ghana register closes.
The delisting removes one more security from a Ghanaian equities market already confronting the challenge of limited trading activity in several listed companies.
For the exchange, a delisting has two effects. It reduces the number of securities available to investors and can narrow the range of industries and markets represented on the bourse.
For the company, however, maintaining a secondary listing carries regulatory, administrative and reporting costs. Where trading volumes are limited or the shareholder base is small, directors and controlling shareholders may conclude that the cost of remaining listed exceeds the benefits.
Trust Bank did not provide its reasons for pursuing the delisting in the September 25 announcement beyond referring to Solo Dabo’s tender offer and the related circular.
The 47.89 per cent acceptance rate indicates that the offer provided liquidity to a sizeable portion of the bank’s Ghana-registered shareholders. But it also means the transition arrangements are not a peripheral issue: they apply to a majority of the shares previously held on the Ghana register.
The fairness of an exit process is not determined solely by the offer price. It also depends on whether investors receive adequate information, sufficient time to make a decision and a practical mechanism for managing the shares they retain.
Trust Bank’s three-month transitional window provides an opportunity for residual shareholders to seek assistance. Its effectiveness will depend on the clarity of the guidance given by the registrar and sponsoring broker.
Trust Bank was established in 1997 after acquiring the assets and liabilities of the defunct Meridian Biao (Gambia) Bank.
It has since grown into one of The Gambia’s largest commercial banks by assets and branch network, providing banking services to retail and business customers.
The Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation of The Gambia is the bank’s largest shareholder.
The delisting does not affect Trust Bank’s operating status as a commercial bank in The Gambia. It changes the market through which its shares can be traded and formally ends its presence as a listed security on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
For shareholders who accepted the offer, the transaction concludes with payment at GH¢1.20 a share.
For those who retained their holdings, however, the next three months will be decisive. They must determine whether to seek a transaction during the transition or allow their shares to move to the principal register in The Gambia.
The delisting may be complete from the exchange’s perspective, but for the holders of the remaining 3.82m shares, the process has entered a new and potentially more complicated phase.
