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Access Holdings, a tier-one Nigerian lender closed trading in the first week of January 2024 at around N26.55 per share. On August 12, 2026 the stock traded at N27.40 a share, meaning it has gone nowhere over the past two and a half years.
To make matters worse for investors, Access Holdings has not paid a dividend since the 2024 fiscal year.
It was not supposed to be like this for what has become Nigeria’s largest bank by assets but its smallest by market capitalization among the top-5 FUGAZ or tier one banks.
Access Holdings N1.49 trillion market capitalization, compares to United Bank for Africa (UBAs) at N2 trillion, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) at N4.697 trillion, Zenith Bank at N5.126 trillion and FirstHoldCo at N6.36 trillion.
FirstHoldCo, Nigeria’s largest bank by market capitalization now dwarfs Access Holdings, and is now more than four-times larger by market capitalization.
Access Holdings meanwhile has an asset base of N53.4 trillion, compared to N30.6 trillion for FirstHoldCo, N32 trillion for Zenith Bank, N33.13 trillion for UBA and N18.74 trillion for GTCO.
Access Holdings Valuation shows investor skepticism
Access Holdings currently trades at a Price to Book ratio of 0.37 times. In essence investors are not willing to pay for the value of net assets on its book.
This may indicate that investors expect low profitability, fear hidden bad loans, or distrust the accuracy of the bank’s balance sheet.
Analysts say Access Bank, the Holding Company’s Bank subsidiary is exposed to cross border execution risk for its numerous acquisitions in Africa and beyond as it sought to strengthen its franchise with geographic diversification, over the past 5 years.
Access led Nigeria’s post-2016 recession push abroad, snapping up assets from Standard Chartered Plc, Atlas Mara Ltd.,…
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Read Full Article by Bala Augie at moneycentral.com.ng
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