Union Bank of Nigeria Plc may have lost as much as N1 billion in the one week its face-off with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) lasted. BusinessWorld Intelligence can reveal that the daily net revenue of the bank after each working day is about N100 million not including other earnings that form part of a long term income.
The five days picketing of the bank by the NLC which paralyzed activities in the bank’s activities across the country is believed to have been the most serious banking sector crisis involving the NLC in the last 20 years. It was gathered that the bank lost all that in the five day crisis in addition to the huge loss in man-hour and other contingent wastages during the period.
The implication of this loss is that shareholders of the bank may not expect any handsome reward in terms of dividend due to the huge loss to the crisis.
There were expectations before this development that Union Bank may declare profit again for the 2010 financial year and may go on to pay dividend to its teeming shareholders.
There are also strong indications that the bank’s other subsidiaries which depend on the parent company for other transactions may have taken their own dose of the misfortuneconsidering the symbiotic relationship between them.
Other activities shared by the group were said to have equally suffered. There are indications that the bank will pick up more bills as it begins real business this week because some of the facilities like the information technology platform may need some repairs after leaving them unused for one week. Union Bank has about 500 branches nationwide.