With a rights issue underway, Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) shares could be seeing the start of a strong downward trend similar to what happened to Kenya Airways stock in March this year when the national carrier commenced its own rights issue.
On the first day of DTB’s rights issue yesterday, the bank’s shares witnessed one of their biggest drops this year losing 6.32 percent to close at KES 89 which was six shillings lower than the share price on Monday, data from the NSE showed.
Yesterday’s drop was reminiscent of Kenya Airways’ share performance which lost more than 17 percent of its price in the three weeks leading up to the launch of the airline’s rights issue on the 30th of March this year according to data from Bloomberg.
While commenting on the Diamond Trust Bank share outlook amidst the just launched rights issue, George Bodo, Head of the Financials desk at Ecobank Capital said, “Although short term, dilutive effects of the share are still real”.
Dilution of shares refers to the reduction of earnings per share of common stock that occurs through the issuance of additional shares or the conversion of convertible securities according to Investopedia, an investment resource website.
If the DTB shares continue on the downward, this would not be their first hiccup after the bank’s activities at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. In March of last year, when DTB carried out a bonus issue, the share went on to fall a total of 50 percent between May and December as a consequence of the extra shares allotted according to Mr. Bodo.
While the counter could decline in the coming days, Mr. Bodo added that “…the quantum of the (DTB shares) dilution will likely be minimized as the (rights) issue remains relatively ‘small’ in size.”
Kenya’s second rights issue this year is seeking to raise 1.8 billion shillings through the issue of 24,455,566 additional shares priced at KES 74 per share. Capital raised will go towards financing Diamond Trust Bank’s strategic expansion which has already seen the bank expand to Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi.