Standard Chartered Bank has announced that its Board of Directors approved a Rights Issue subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.  A notice of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held on Thursday 24^th May 2012 has also been released. This will be the 26th AGM of the shareholders of bank and will be held at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi.

The special issues on which the shareholders are to decide are the following:

1. Proposal to increase authorised share capital from KES 1.5 billion divided into 300 million ordinary shares to KES 1.625 billion divided into 325 million ordinary shares.
2. A Rights issue.

A rights issue is an issue of additional shares by a company to raise additional capital. The current shareholders (prior to the rights issue) are given a chance to buy additional shares, proportionate to their shareholding in the company prior to the rights issue. The idea is to ensure that shareholders have the opportunity to maintain their exact same position in shareholding, so that no one buys the entire company or anything like that at the expense of everyone else.