Ecobank shares, largest IPO ever
Accra (Ghana) - Ecobank Transnational currently operating in 25 countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire, will today begin the sale to sell $2.5 billion of shares, in what it said is the biggest stock offering in Africa, to help fund new branches on the continent and expand in countries where it has no presence.
According to a statement by the bank on Saturday, the capital raising exercise, which is the first trans-border initial public offering and Rights Issue in Africa, is expected to be sold simultaneously on three stock exchanges.
They are the Ghana Stock Exchange, the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the ‘Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières,’ the regional stock exchange in Abidjan.
The statement said that the details of the offer showed that ETI would raise the $2.5bn equity through a 3.76 billion rights issue, being offered at $0.27 apiece at a ratio of five new shares for every nine held.
It said 5.12 billion shares are also being offered to the public at $0.29 each.
“This implies a discount of 20 per cent for the rights offer and 12.5 per cent for the public offer to the 30-day volume-weighted average price of the company’s stock across the three stock markets where it trades,” the bank said.
The statement quoted the Chairman, ETI, Mr. Mande Sidibe, who spoke at a world press conference in Accra, Ghana, as saying that the approvals for the registration and listing of the new shares obtained from the relevant regulatory authorities also included the “Union Economique et Monetaire Ouest Africaine.”
Sidibe said the proceeds of the offer would not only be used for expansion, but also to recapitalize already existing subsidiaries.
This, he said, was to further strengthen the Ecobank Group’s accelerated branch network growth plans in countries where it currently operated.
He noted that the funds would also be used to expand to other countries, adding that the bank was determined to consolidate its position as the leading pan-African banking group.
The increased capital would also help upgrade, as well as modernize the group’s technology platform, the bank said in the statement.
The statement quoted the Group Chief Executive Officer, ETI, Mr. Arnold Ekpe, as saying that the offer was a landmark, targeted at Africans all over the world.
Ekpe said the group, which currently operated in 25 countries in West, Central and Eastern Africa, would open new offices in 22 other strategic countries, particularly in the Central and Southern African sub-regions such as Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia among others.
Ecobank Nigeria Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and ICMG Securities Limited are joint issuing houses to the offer in Nigeria while Ecobank Development Corporation and First Africa SA Limited are financial advisers to the offer in all the three stock exchanges.
ETI is the holding company of the Ecobank Group, and is currently operating in 25 countries.
August 26th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Please would nigerians in diaspora be able to purchase these shares from abroad, ideally through foreign financial institutions.