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Ecobank Set to Develop Trades in Africa
- By Kayode Ogunwale
- Published May 11th, 2010
- Smartmoney
- Unrated
ECOBANK Transnational is set to improve on its presence in 32 African countries to develop trade within the West, East and Central African sub regions.
Mr. Jibril Aku the managing director of Ecobank Plc stated this last week in Lagos that the company will soon open offices in Europe, China and South Africa in a bid to extend its reach to other parts of the world.
He said that the group is already making in-roads into South Africa, and has formed an alliance with Nedbank of South Africa. One of the benefits of the alliance is that customers of the bank can now use their payment card to obtain rand in South Africa through the network of Nedbank’s ATMs.
He further disclosed that Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) has increased its shareholding in Ecobank Nigeria as a result of the share placement by the bank.
He noted that Ecobank is the only bank with the potential to foster financial integration in the West African sub-region, giving its network of banks across the sub-region.
He said the bank group through its network has been helping businesses facilitate transactions and growth across the sub-region and in doing this observed strong trade links in West Africa.
He said the group intends to carry forward this experience to develop trade corridors within the Western, Eastern and Central African regions leveraging on its increasing strong presence in Eastern and Central African regions.
Aku stated that the proposed merger between pan-African banks, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, and First Bank of Nigeria Plc had raised a lot of anxiety in the banking industry when it was first announced two years ago. While details of the deal were continually kept under wrap, it was considered in several quarters that the merger would produce one of the biggest banking institutions in Africa. While observers to the deal thought the arrangement had died down, a renewed consideration of the proposed merger almost reached the concluding stages sometime in late 2009. Sources close to the discussions had said that the Ecobank board was also expected to approve the merger after First Bank had done the same.
He stress that there is no agreement guiding the merger. Whatever you hear about the merger is a friendly discussion. If tomorrow the will is there to drive it on, it is okay. But for now, there is no document driving the merger.
According to him “ The shareholders had in the past approved that the Board be authorised to raise money through public offering, Rights, bonds and any combination of raising funds but for the market meltdown the idea was aborted last year .
But since the Bank needed additional money to boost operations and ETI had already deposited money for shares worth N46 billion the Bank had no other option than to allocate some shares to ETI at N7.00 per share after receiving approval from the appropriate authorities. We told the NSE to give us two years to see if the stock market will recover from depression in which investors will have confidence in the market so as to enable the Bank reduce the stake of ETI and gives opportunity to other minority shareholders to invest in the Bank as there is a provision that limit the volume of equity to be controlled by an investor in any bank.”
However, the bank in its audited result for the year ended 31st December 2009 shows gross earnings of N59.864 billion as against N55.156 billion in 2008. Loss after tax stood at N4.588 billion compared with N5 billion in 2008.
While it’s unaudited result for the first quarter ended 31st March 2010 shows gross earnings of N13.703 billion, as against N14.904 billion in the comparable period of 2009. Profit after tax stood at N1.071 billion compared with N1.838 billion in 2009.
Mr. Jibril Aku the managing director of Ecobank Plc stated this last week in Lagos that the company will soon open offices in Europe, China and South Africa in a bid to extend its reach to other parts of the world.
He said that the group is already making in-roads into South Africa, and has formed an alliance with Nedbank of South Africa. One of the benefits of the alliance is that customers of the bank can now use their payment card to obtain rand in South Africa through the network of Nedbank’s ATMs.
He further disclosed that Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) has increased its shareholding in Ecobank Nigeria as a result of the share placement by the bank.
He noted that Ecobank is the only bank with the potential to foster financial integration in the West African sub-region, giving its network of banks across the sub-region.
He said the bank group through its network has been helping businesses facilitate transactions and growth across the sub-region and in doing this observed strong trade links in West Africa.
He said the group intends to carry forward this experience to develop trade corridors within the Western, Eastern and Central African regions leveraging on its increasing strong presence in Eastern and Central African regions.
Aku stated that the proposed merger between pan-African banks, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, and First Bank of Nigeria Plc had raised a lot of anxiety in the banking industry when it was first announced two years ago. While details of the deal were continually kept under wrap, it was considered in several quarters that the merger would produce one of the biggest banking institutions in Africa. While observers to the deal thought the arrangement had died down, a renewed consideration of the proposed merger almost reached the concluding stages sometime in late 2009. Sources close to the discussions had said that the Ecobank board was also expected to approve the merger after First Bank had done the same.
He stress that there is no agreement guiding the merger. Whatever you hear about the merger is a friendly discussion. If tomorrow the will is there to drive it on, it is okay. But for now, there is no document driving the merger.
According to him “ The shareholders had in the past approved that the Board be authorised to raise money through public offering, Rights, bonds and any combination of raising funds but for the market meltdown the idea was aborted last year .
But since the Bank needed additional money to boost operations and ETI had already deposited money for shares worth N46 billion the Bank had no other option than to allocate some shares to ETI at N7.00 per share after receiving approval from the appropriate authorities. We told the NSE to give us two years to see if the stock market will recover from depression in which investors will have confidence in the market so as to enable the Bank reduce the stake of ETI and gives opportunity to other minority shareholders to invest in the Bank as there is a provision that limit the volume of equity to be controlled by an investor in any bank.”
However, the bank in its audited result for the year ended 31st December 2009 shows gross earnings of N59.864 billion as against N55.156 billion in 2008. Loss after tax stood at N4.588 billion compared with N5 billion in 2008.
While it’s unaudited result for the first quarter ended 31st March 2010 shows gross earnings of N13.703 billion, as against N14.904 billion in the comparable period of 2009. Profit after tax stood at N1.071 billion compared with N1.838 billion in 2009.
