Intercontinental Bank Plc has recorded a 774 percent over subscription in its recently concluded public offering.
Ken Tadaferua, Group Executive, Corporate Affairs & Brand Management in a statement made available to THISDAY yesterday, said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have verified and approved the allotment of the shares offered to investors at N13.50 per share.
He said, “this is a record in the annals of public offer subscriptions in Nigeria and another milestone in the bank’s leadership status in key performance indicators in the Nigerian banking industry including shareholders capital and profitability.
“The offer which was intended to raise N30 billion grossed about N100 billion with over N90 billion currently approved by the regulatory authorities. A substantial amount of the remaining shares worth over N9 billion are still being verified by the Central Bank of Nigeria and when approved shall be treated as additional allotment,” he said.
He added, “this is a monumental reflection of the strong investor confidence in Intercontinental Bank. A confidence that is not limited to Nigeria but internationally as five reputable foreign financial institutions recently staked N20.25 billion ($161 million) in convertible preference shares in the bank.”
Specifically he said, “details of the offer results show that a total of 275,471 applications for 6.4 billion ordinary shares were received in connection with the public offer, out of which 268,976 applications for 5.7 billion shares were found valid, accepted and processed by the regulatory authorities accordingly. Another 176, 979 applications for 4.9 billion shares for the supplementary offer were all found valid and accepted. Also a total of 53,927 applications for 963 million shares for the Rights issue were also valid and accepted.”
He assured that share certificates in the names of successful allotees shall be dispatched to their given addresses by the bank’s Registrars not later than Tuesday, July 3, 2007.
He stressed that all the new shareholders, along with the old ones, whose names appear on the register of members of the bank as at June 20, 2007, will be entitled to final dividend payout of 35 kobo per share to be approved at the bank’s annual general meeting holding in Abuja on June 29, 2007, “ This is line with the bank’s corporate philosophy of making its stakeholders happy by building and preserving their wealth.
“The massive confidence of investors in the bank has been further justified by the recent record financial performance by the bank, with a pre tax profit of N22.6 billion, the highest ever recorded by any quoted bank in the history of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The bank’s share price has also climbed by over 100 percent from the offer price of N13.50 in December 2006 to over N27 now to the delight of its investors. According to market watchers, the price of the bank’s stock is expected to react positively and significantly to the wave of outstanding developments by the bank,” he said.
Intercontinental Bank is the first Nigerian bank to cross the $1billion threshold in shareholders fund and in excess of $1.3 billion (N177 billion including the recent foreign investment of N20.25 billion).
The growth of the bank’s share capital from about N2 billion pre-consolidation to over N150billion has been hailed by market operators as astounding while the investment by the consortium of foreign investors in the bank has been described as the most significant in Nigeria’s banking history.
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