ETI launches public offer

Story: Boahene Asamoah

ECOBANK Transnational Incorporated (ETI), a pan-African Bank, will next Monday launch Africa’s biggest and first regional public offer and rights issue to raise $2.5 billion for its African expansion programme.
This follows the completion of board meeting of the directors of ETI in Accra on Monday and approval received from the three stock exchanges on which the bank is listed and securities regulatory bodies in those countries.
These are the Ghana Stock Exchange, the Nigeria Stock Exchange and BRVM of Cote d’Ivoire.
The offer includes a rights issue of 3,763,759,981 shares at $0.27 per share, which constitute 40 per cent or $1 billion, while the remaining $1.5 billion would be raised through an offer for subscription at $0.029 per share.
Shareholders at the annual general meeting held in Accra early this year approved the board decision to raise $3 billion to finance its expansion programme, as well as capitalise some of its operations in Accra.
The bank currently operates in 25 countries and has targeted 22 more countries in central and southern Africa.
At a press conference to announce the completion of the board meeting, which attracted both local and international media, the Board Chairman of the bank, Mr Mande Sidibe, stated that “the offer will be used to further strengthen Ecobank’s accelerated growth plan to expand its network of branches in countries where it currently operates”.
He said the exercise would offer Africans the opportunity to own part of the African bank and ensure that the bank remained an African company.
He said over the past years, the company had seen outstanding performance of the bank and urged the investing public to buy shares in the bank.
The group Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr Arnold Ekpe, stated that the company aimed at attracting both Africans and Africans in the Diaspora and other investors in the world.
He said the amount raised would not only go into expansion of its network in Africa but also to capitalise some of its operations on the continent.
The rights issue and the public offer are at discounts of 20 per cent and 12.5 per cent respectively over a period of six weeks.
Ecobank Nigeria Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and CIMG Securities Limited are joint issuing houses to the offer in Nigeria, while Ecobank Development Corporation (EDC) and First Africa SA (Pty) Limited are the financial advisers to the offer in all the three markets.