Daily Independent Online.
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Thursday, June 17, 2004.
Zenith
Bank to ratify N8.7 billion offer
Mojeed Jamiu
Finance
Editor
Zenith Bank Plc will on Thursday hold
its Completion Board meeting for the purpose of ratifying the offer documents
in respect of the bank’s N8.7 billion Initial Public Offer (IPO).
The development,
according to a statement from the bank on Tuesday in Lagos, was sequel to the
approval of the offer documents by the Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC).
Zenith Bank is
offering for subscription 800,000,000 Ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N10.90
Kobo per share with the proviso that should the offer be over-subscribed, the
directors may issue additional shares to the public up to the authorized share
capital of the bank.
The board and
management of Zenith International Bank Limited had last month approved the IPO
of the bank for listing on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
This news more than
gladdened the hearts of investors who believed any investment on the shares of
the bank could only be another success story for them given the bank’s
antecedents in the financial sector of the country.
The Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) had in 2002 formally confirmed the bank as the fourth largest in
the industry after First Bank, Union Bank and United Bank for Africa.
The apex regulatory
body, also in the Banking Supervision Annual Report for 2002 said the bank
emerged the most liquid among the new generation banks as it recorded a
liquidity ratio of 80.3 per cent against the regulator’s requirement of
40 per cent.
In the overall banking
system, First Bank emerged the most liquid with 83.5 per cent to be followed by
Zenith, 80.3 per cent and Citibank with 65.4 per cent respectively.
In five years, from
1999 to 2003, the bank has recorded impressive performance on many fronts.
Total assets plus contingent liabilities grew by 311 per cent from N37.28
billion to N153.44 billion. Gross earnings increased from N7.07 billion to
N17.84 billion representing 152 per cent growth. Other indicators like pre-tax
profit also grew by 255 per cent from N1.52 billion to N5.44 billion while
shareholders’ funds increased from N3.42 billion to N12.65 billion
representing 269 per cent growth.
