Abbey Building Society Plc has secured a loan facility worth about N1.48 billion ($10 billion) from the Netherlands Development Finance Corporation (NDFC).

According to a statement by the company released to the investing community by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Tuesday, the company stated that the loan facility, which is convertible, is subject to its fulfilling certain requirements. The statement released by the NSE reads, “members:Abbey Building Society Plc has notified the exchange of the acceptance of an offer of $10m convertible loan facility from Netherlands Development Finance Company.

“However, the draw-down will be subject to the satisfaction of all conditions precedent within an availability period of twenty four months.”Meanwhile, a marginal increase was   recorded in trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Tuesday, as the value of listed equities appreciated by N694.74 million.

This was brought about by gains on the share prices of major blue chip companies, led by Flour Mills Nigeria Plc. Shares of Flour Mills have continued to enjoyed steady price increase since the release of its third quarter financial results which signaled its return to profitability after suffering a huge foreign exchange loss in its 2009 financial statement.

To this end, the market capitalisation and All-share index rose by 0.01 per cent. The capitalisation which opened at N5.554 trillion garnered N694.74 million to close at N5.555 trillion while the index rose by 2.88 basis points to close at 23,064.29 points.

Flour Mills recorded a share price appreciation of N2.18 to close at N45.78 per share, UAC Nigeria Plc followed with a gain of N0.99 to close at N41.99 per share and Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc garnered N0.41 to close at N8.70 per share.

On the contrary, Lafarge Cement WAPCO Plc recorded the most share price loss, dropping by N0.80 to close at N34.20 per share, RT. Briscoe Plc followed with a loss of N0.29 to close at N5.69 per share.

(Source:Vanguard)