Shareholders of Sterling Bank Plc have approved the bank’s plan to raise additional funds of up to N100bn or its United States dollar equivalent.



The shareholders also approved an increase in the authorised share capital of the bank by up to N20bn by the creation of 20billion ordinary shares of 50kobo per share.



They equally empowered the directors of the bank to take necessary steps including initiating and negotiating mergers/or acquisitions or any form of other business combination with any company whether foreign or local.



Besides, the shareholders gave the directors the authority to reconstruct the bank’s shares.



All the approvals were given at the 45th Annual General Meeting of the bank held in Lagos on Tuesday. Although some shareholders initially kicked against the share reconstruction considering the fact the bank had embarked on a similar exercise last year, the Group Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Babatunde Dabiri, gave the rationale for the proposed reconstruction.



According to him, the reconstruction is as a result of the post-merger share adjustments in accordance with approved scheme of merger of the legacy banks.



He explained that it was sanctioned by the court that should there be discrepancies in the claims made by any of the legacy banks after the merger, the shares should be adjusted.



He added that the reconstruction will also make the bank to compete favourably and give value to investors.



He assured the shareholders that the future was bright as the half year results have indicated, saying the bank started on a clean note having cleaned up its books.



Dabiri explained that the funds to be raised would be used to enhance its operations and create more value for shareholders. Although, Sterling Bank has a relationship with State Bank of India, he said a major business alliance with a leading foreign bank would be unveiled very soon.



In his report, the chairman of the bank, Alhaji Suleiman Baffa, said that despite the huge cost of the consolidation exercise, the group ended the nine months in September 30, 2007 with a profit after tax of N1.05bn compared with a loss of N5.6bn at the beginning of the financial year.



Baffa said, “Similarly, total balance sheet and contingent increased significantly by 365 per cent from N31.33bn in December 2005 to N145.74bn at the end of September 2006.



“However, we could not recommend a dividend payment for the nine-month period due to fact that earnings from the previous operations were used to clean up our books and position the bank with an efficient balance sheet that would guarantee a healthy return to shareholders in the coming years,” he said.

-PUNCH NEWSPAPER
wednesday, 29th August, 2007.

Not another bank again!~~

Panadol:

Not another bank again!~~

hope you dun have to take the real panadol o, because there's still about 6 banks lining up,

my brother, na so we see am o

These people have simply pulverised the secondary market.