How 160,000 Transcorp PLC shares saved my life.

As a kid growing up in Warri, my dad held/owned a post office box in the Effurun Post Office so whenever he picked up his letters I always saw either dividends, company brochures or company reports and this was how I got introduced to company shares.

While my dad never ever spoke to me about the specifics or encouraged me to buy shares, I started to buy shares as a university undergraduate. I remember that my first personal foray was OANDO shares and then I bought GT Bank and Zenith Bank IPOs even while I was an undergraduate student at the University of Benin. I paint this background to let you know, I was already on the come-up (Lol) when it comes to shares purchase.

As an engineering undergrad, I used to know how to use AutoCAD, Corel Draw and MS Ppt very well and did lots of jobs for final year engineering students who needed design drawings and power-point presentations for their final year projects (Oshey, tech bro.... Lol), add this to constantly starving myself to save and you will know how I got money to buy these shares.

I am not a big time stockbroker but sometime in June 2011, I was reading through some newspapers at work when I came across a news item that stated that Tony Elumelu, who had recently stepped down from being UBA CEO, was trying to buy out all other directors of Transcorp PLC. Knowing that the man was a very driven and successful business man, I looked at the price of Transcorp PLC and saw it was 95kobo. 95kobo? You don't say!!!

I was honestly surprised at the price but immediately funded my stock brokerage account and emailed my stockbrokers to buy me one hundred thousand shares (100000) of the said Transcorp PLC.

Purchase Instruction email

This transaction was completed over 2 purchases with the total sum still less than N100,000 for all 100,000 shares including taxes and fees.

In September, 2011 I added another 60,000 shares @ N1.03 per share before proceeding later that month to the UK for a Masters Degree.

Additional 60,000 Transcorp

Returning to Nigeria in late 2012 I got wind that Transcorp was bidding for some power assets and immediately understood why Tony Elumelu had acquired the majority holding of Transcorp on 2011.

I had held on to my 160,000 Transcorp shares and never traded them, I was always monitoring the price and impressed with its growth through 2013.

Transcorp Share progression

In May 2014 I was going to get married and by then the price crossed the N5 naira mark making Tony Elumelu get into Forbes list as one of Africa's richest while, yours sincerely sold 100000 of those shares to pay for some wedding expenses. I was getting 5 times my purchase cost for these 100000 shares and this saved my life them because despite having a well paying job, wedding expenses was choking.

Since last year, 2023 and after the elections, Transcorp shares have been on the rise and I have liquidated the last of my holdings, selling the last 5000 shares I was still holding on to last week for N43 per share.

While trading in shares may seem unprofitable, It is something I have continued to do as a long term saving strategy and this Transcorp shares have been the best performing among my holdings on the NSE and I'm grateful for that wisdom to buy that much in 2011.