Intercontinental Bank holds AGM, increases share capital

updated: Tuesday 01-07-2008

Erastus Akingbola,
MD, Intercontinental BankIntercontinental Bank Plc, one of Nigeria’s leading financial supermarkets, holds its nineteenth Annual General Meeting today (Monday) in Abuja, the country’s capital city where shareholders are expected to approve the creation of additional shares.

In the notice of AGM already served to shareholders, the bank is seeking the nod of owners to create additional 3.5 billion ordinary shares which will push the company’s ordinary shares from 21 billion to 24.5 billion Ordinary Shares of 50 kobo each and 1.5 billion Preference Shares of 50 kobo each. This will increase the Authorised Share Capital to N13 billion from N11.25billion.

The shareholders are also expected to ratify the change of the bank’s financial year end from February to December in accordance with the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria that all banks must end their financials by December of each year.

Intercontinental Bank has one of the largest shareholder-base in the nation’s banking industry. A source at the bank’s Registrars put the number of Nigerians holding shares in the bank to over 300,000. In spite of this, the bank has continued to dole out impressive dividend to shareholders.

The bank is proposing a total dividend of N13.5billion for the 2007/2008 year. This is made up of the N6.3 billion paid to the investors as interim dividend last September and the N7.2billion, the bank is proposing to pay as final dividend payout to its shareholders this month.

This translates to 75 kobo total dividend per share for the year up from 60 kobo paid last financial year.

The increased dividend, which is the fallout from the sterling performance of the bank, came at the backdrop of expanded issued and fully paid shares of the bank.

The bank last week announced its financial results for the year ended February 2008 which shows a deposit base of N1.05 trillion, up by 126 per cent from N468 billion in the previous year. Total assets plus contingents rose to N1.7 trillion, up by 108 per cent from N823 billion. This has made the bank the first to hit trillion mark in deposit and also giving it number one position in total assets.

The bank also recorded a phenomenal growth in gross earnings which stood at N173.5 billion, an increase of 99 per cent over the N87.4 billion recorded in the previous year.

Profit before tax grew by a whopping 102 per cent to N45.6 billion, as against N22.6 billion in 2007, while profit after tax soared by 125 per cent to N34.8billion during the period under review. The capital base also rose to N200 billion from N157 billion.

Analysts posited at the week end that the bank’s dividend payout of N13.5 billion for the year is exceptional but not surprising given the bank’s remarkable growth rate of dividend payout to shareholders over the past six years.

The bank paid N574 million as total dividend in 2001 and paid N1 billion in 2002. The bank’s dividend payout rose to N1.4 billion in 2003 climbing to N1.6 billion in 2005. Then shareholders enjoyed a sharp increment in dividend payout of N4.2 billion 2006 and N9.5 billion last year.

This is indicative of the bank’s management capacity to turn its growing share-holders’ funds into profitability and higher returns on investment.

With this development, market watchers believe the bank’s global intent of being the number one in Nigeria, among top 500 in Africa and top 500 in the world by 2010 is realizable owing to the massive customer and investor support that the Intercontinental Bank brand is attracting in Nigeria and abroad.

Intercontinental Bank recently embarked upon a strategic repositioning drive to dominate retail markets across the country, leveraging on its strong corporate finance business and massive market response to the bank’s consistent delivery on its brand promises to make customers happy with excellent banking services.

The Group Chief Executive, Dr. Erastus Akingbola, said the exceptional performance of the bank in all financial indices represents a bold step in the bank’s global strategy of benchmarking the best financial institution in the international arena.

Recently, Intercontinental Bank entered into a joint venture with Blue Financial Services Company, the number one micro finance institution in Africa with 171 branches spread across ten African countries to float Blue-Intercontinental Micro-finance Bank.

Analysts said the bank’s track record of superlative performance over the years puts it in good stead to achieve this target. Intercontinental Bank was ranked 355 in the world by the Financial Times of London, making it the only Nigerian Bank in the world’s top 500 banks and the second fastest growing in the world in 2007.

We will soon be listed on NSE - ETB

By Femi Ibirogba

Equitorial Trust Bank Plc is perfecting its expansion programmes that will eventually lead to its being quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

This revelation was made known by the Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Ike Oraekwuotu, during the inauguration ceremony of the newly-open branches of the bank at Oke-Ado and Apata areas of Ibadan, Oyo State, last week.

“There was no need to go to the capital market to raise funds during the recapitalisation, for we successfully overcame the hurdle. However, we constantly realise that we should expand our services and products. So, towards the end of this year, we will be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange,” Oraekwuotu said.

While speaking on the vision of the bank, the Managing Director said the institution was being driven by its vision of being the most efficient and customer-friendly bank with first-class and world-class services and products.

His words, “We are driven by the vision to be the most efficient, customer-friendly bank in Nigeria, because all banks today are well capitalised. What is deficient is the level of efficiency of services, and that is where we are coming in. We want to be known for being customer-friendly, offering efficient services to all our customers that cut across individuals, governments and corporate bodies.”

On expansion activities, the ETB boss said aggressive branch network expansion had been embarked upon, adding that asides two new branches open in Ibadan, 28 more branches would be opened across the country in the next three weeks.

According to the boss, about 50 more branches are at different stages of construction apart from 25 ready for inauguration soon.

“We are opening 25 more branches in the next three weeks. We also have about 46-50 branches which are under construction and at different stages. This is just to ensure we are present everywhere to serve our numerous customers more efficiently,” Oraekwuotu added.

Also speaking at the inauguration, Chief (Mrs.) Yetunde Adegbola, the chairperson of the bank, said Ibadan, after Lagos, is a major commercial centre that calls for more efficient banking services, dictating the opening of two more branches to bring the total to seven.

“We wish to state that Ibadan and Oyo State mean so much to us in ETB as one of the first places outside Lagos. These branches have served the people so well and contributed to our rapid growth and development. Our interest in Ibadan arises from the fact that it is not only the capital of Oyo State, but also one of the largest and most vibrant centres of commerce in Nigeria,” Mrs. Adegbola said.

Nigerian foreign exchange reserves climb to $60.7b

Odidison Omankhanlen, Lagos

The nation’s foreign exchange reserves rose to $60.74 billion in mid-June from $59.18 billion at the end of May, the Central Bank said at the weekend, as global oil prices soared above $142 a barrel.

The reserves climbed 28 per cent year-on-year from $43.54 billion on June 15, 2007, the regulator stated in its website.

The CBN did not say how many months of imports the reserves could finance, but it had said the May level could fund 27 months of Nigeria's import bills.

The reserves of Africa's top oil producer had rocketed to a record $61.96 billion in mid-May, thanks to soaring global oil prices, before the mid-June dip.

Nigeria's foreign reserves have expanded consistently since 2005, bolstered by rising world oil prices.

NDIC pays N74.2b deposit liabilies

By Odidison Omankhanlen, Lagos

NIGERIAN Insurance Deposit Corporation (NDIC), a regulator in the financial industry, has so far paid N74.2 billion to depositors of 11 failed banks out of N84.5 billion trapped in 13 banks that could not make the consolidation exercise in 2005.

Chief Executive Officer of NDIC, Alhaji Ganiyu Ogunleye, who disclosed this at a public forum in Lagos last week, said the money was paid under the Purchasing and Acquisition (P&A) arrangement put in place by the NDIC, adding that the bank equally paid N3.3 billion of the N5.2 billion deposits that were insured by 34 of the 36 banks that collapsed before the 2006 consolidation exercise.

The amount paid represents 88 per cent of the total deposit liabilities of the 13 failed banks, according to him, that the paid sum was private deposit liabilities but did not include public deposit liabilities and tax liabilities.

He said that the corporation would have settled all the private deposit liabilities but for litigations on the suits filed by some shareholders of Fortune International Bank and Triumph Bank.

“As you may be aware, NDIC has been appointed liquidator of 11 out of the 14 banks whose licences were revoked in January 2006. Sequel to the Federal High Court decision on Societe Generale Bank’s lawsuit, the number of banks for resolution by NDIC reduced to 13.

“However, the law suits filed by the shareholders/directors of the remaining two banks, namely Fortune and Triumph Bank, are still pending before the courts. Therefore, we cannot resolve the private deposit liabilities of the banks until the cases in the courts are resolved,” he said.