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LAGOS — GUARANTY Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc is opening its investment doors today for local and foreign investors to buy into its public offering of N96 billion ($750 million). The offer is a variant from the popular public offering that is well-known to Nigerians.

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This time, the bank is asking the investing public to buy into its Global Depository Receipts in dollars that is convertible to shares at the instance of the holders of the receipts. The Global Depository Receipts will be listed both on the London Stock Exchange and the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The foreign component of the offer is giving a total of $500 million (N64 billion) investment opportunity to foreign investors to own part of GTBank while $250 million or N32 billion is being offered to local investors. The offer will close on July 19, 2007.

Officials of the bank at an investors’ forum in Lagos, Friday, said with the offer, the bank shareholders' fund would rise to N150 billion surpassing the $1billion that has become the equity targets of most Nigerian banks. The fund being raised is to be denominated in dollars but local investors can pay in Naira as the CBN has given the bank the permission to convert such Naira subscription into dollar. The minimum that an investor can subscribe is 50GDR at $12 per GDR, meaning that a minimum of N80,000 is required to invest in the offer.

According to GTBank officials, “a Global Depositary Receipt (GDR) is typically a dollar denominated instrument issued in international financial markets through a registered depositary bank. GDRs are negotiable bank certificates, issued by the Depositary Bank and representing ownership of certain equity securities (the Underlying Shares) that are issued and tradable in a local market. These negotiable certificates represent ownership of a certain number of shares of a company  and can be listed/traded independently from the Underlying Shares. The issued GDRs are exchanged with the Underlying Shares at a predetermined ratio (for example, 50 shares to 1 GDR).

However, GDRs are entirely fungible with ordinary shares and can be swapped for the Underlying Shares and vice versa. GDRs are typically used for capital raising purposes by companies from emerging markets to access investors in international markets.

J.P. Morgan Securities Limited and Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc are the Joint Bookrunners/Global Co-ordinators/International Underwriters of the GDR Offer, while Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited is the Local Co-ordinator. The members of the Domestic Underwriting Syndicate are Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited, BGL Limited, FBN Capital Limited, First City Monument Bank Plc, Futureview Financial Services Limited, IBTC Chartered Bank Plc, Sterling Capital Markets Limited, Vetiva Capital Management Limited and WSTC Financial Services Limited.

GTBank’s GDR offering is the first ever opportunity for Nigerians to invest in the securities of a Nigerian company listed and traded on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The offer provides local investors access to a large, global marketplace.