Stakeholders Approve GTB Public Offer
By Uche Obike
Stakeholders at the weekend endorsed Guaranty Trust Bank Plc's Public Offer at Completion Board Meeting held in Lagos.
At the meeting, the bank's stakeholders approved GTB's proposal to raise funds from the capital market.
Shareholders had during the Annual General Meeting in Lagos last month given their unanimous approval for the bank's management to raise more funds by way of an Initial Public Offer (IPO).
A total of one billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each was approved for sale to the investing public. Since that AGM, additional information on the offer point to the fact that the bank is well on its way to being transformed into a financial powerhouse with tentacles in strategic sectors of several African economies.
Officials of the bank during the Completion Board Meeting confirmed that GTB will be offering for subscription one billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N10.60 per share, to the general investing public, with 30 per cent of the shares for select portfolio investors.
The Offer will be offered to investors at units of a minimum of 500 ordinary shares and multiples of 250 ordinary shares thereafter.
To further ensure that all Nigerians are given the opportunity to invest, Guaranty Trust will also adopt a supplementary allotment procedure. Hence, in the event that the offer is oversubscribed, excess monies will be capitalised and additional shares allotted to the extent that can be accommodated by the bank's unissued share capital.
The bank's officials also disclosed that the purpose of the offer is to provide Guaranty Trust with additional longterm capital required to implement its short to medium term corporate objectives, in order to take advantage of business opportunities in the Nigerian economy and beyond.
These include: accelerating its branch and regional expansion programme, enhancing its information technology infrastructure, as well as providing sufficient working capital to meet its immediate and foreseeable requirements.
Meanwhile, the total dividend payout to shareholders of the bank for the 2003/2004 financial year ending February 29, 2004 was N2.1 billion, or 70 kobo per share. The bank also gave a generous bonus issue of one new share for every three shares currently held by shareholders.
In attendance to endorse the official commencement of the offer were top officials from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), dealing members of the NSE, solicitors to the offer, top management of the two issuing houses to the offer - First City Monument Bank and Asset & Resource Management - representatives of local and foreign media and several key individuals representing strategic domestic and foreign institutional investors.
"These are really interesting times for the Nigerian economy," a London-based Nigerian fund manager told reporters. "This is an interesting bank, a successful Nigerian bank coming out with an interesting, well priced offer."
Guaranty Trust Bank Plc is presently generating a lot of interest from international investors, including emerging market fund managers and financial institutions, some of which are existing shareholders of the bank. On hand to receive the parties to the meeting were staff and directors of the 14-year-old bank which has seen its stock market value go up to an all time high of well over N17.00 in February 2004, three months before it was placed on a technical suspension on Friday May 15, 2004. Now with well over 70,000 shareholders, the stock is currently listed at N11.94 per share and it will remain at this price until the conclusion of the offer.
Founded in 1990 and listed on the stock exchange in September 1996, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc is currently one of the fastest growing institutions in the sub-region, with two off-shore subsidiaries in Gambia and Sierra Leone, Guaranty Trust Bank (Gambia) Ltd and Guaranty Trust Bank (Sierra Leone) Ltd. Both companies ended their first full financial year of operations in 2003 with commendable results, said Tayo Aderinokun, Managing Director of the bank.
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