Lagos - Skye Bank of Nigeria PLC, will on Monday, January 14, 2008, commence raising a N50 billion hybrid through the issuance of 3,732,208,103 new shares - made up of a Rights Issue of 1,500,608,958 and an offer for subscription of 2,231,599,145 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each - at N12.50 and N14.00 per share respectively.

Making this known at the end of the board’s meeting on Wednesday, the Chairman of the bank, Alhaji Adeola Smith, said, “the estimated net proceeds of N47,913,441,975.11 of the total offer, after the deduction of total offer costs of N2,086,558,030, will be used to deepen Skye Bank’s retail infrastructure in Nigeria.”

About 36 per cent of the raised offer (N17.34bn) will be used to beef up the bank’s working capital on a continuous basis, while 32.3 per cent or N15.476bn, would be invested in the bank’s subsidiaries to improve the group’s top and bottom-line growth within the next two years. Branch development will incur N10.9bn in line with the board’s plan to expand the bank’s branch network with 21 new outlets in Lagos within the next 36 months. Another N4.12bn (or 8.6 per cent) will be used to improve the Information Technology infrastructure.

The board projects a dividend of 60 kobo per share and hoped to recommend a dividend of 70 kobo per share at the end of the 2009 full year, and 80 kobo per share in 2010.

Current Skye Bank share price at close of market January 8 was N17.1, up 0.01k from previous day’s trading.

The joint issuing houses are Vetiva Capital Management Limited; FBN Capital Limited; Greenwich Trust Limited; and Sterling Capital Limited, while the lead stockbrokers are Capital Assets Limited; Dominion Trust Limited; and PSL Limited.

Skye Bank is a merger of Eko International Bank PLC, Prudent Bank and three other banks (Co-operative Bank Plc, Reliance Bank Limited, and Reliance Bank Limited). Eko International Bank had its strengths in the commercial and retail/consumer banking, as well as in public sector business, while Prudent Bank was reputed for its professional competence in project finance, corporate banking and customer relationship management.

Investors have benefited from the high rate of returns associated with Nigerian stocks especially from institutions such as First Bank, Access Bank, Fidelity Bank, Afribank, Union Bank, Zenith Bank, and non-financial institutions such as Dangote Sugars PLC.

Visit Skye Bank corporate site: http://www.skyebankng.com/index.php

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