Posted by By SEUN ADESIDA on
Intercontinental Bank Nigeria Plc has emerged one of the top 10 largest and most liquid companies in Africa, according to a recent ranking of Standard & Poor's (S&P).
Intercontinental Bank Nigeria Plc has emerged one of the top 10 largest and most liquid companies in Africa, according to a recent ranking of Standard & Poor's (S&P).
The ranking was based on S&P's three newly launched benchmark and investible indices designed to provide investors with access to Africa's developing equity markets, as well as being a measurement tool for the performance of these markets.
The indices aim to capture 80 percent of the total market capitalization of each country and thus provide investors with a comprehensive benchmark on African markets, according to S&P.
The S&P African Frontier Index gained over 52 percent over the last three years, while the S&P Pan-Africa Index has gained over 18 percent in the same period, according to the company.
The third new offering is the S&P Africa 40 Index, designed to provide tradable exposure to 40 of the largest and most liquid companies that operate purely in Africa. Companies must be domiciled in Africa or have the majority of their assets and operations in Africa.
The index is dominated by companies from the financial, materials, telecommunications and industrial sectors, with MTN Group (South Africa), Orascom Construction (Egypt), First Quantum Minerals (Zambia) and Standard Bank Group (South Africa) and Intercontinental Bank (Nigeria) among the largest constituents.
On a historical basis, the S&P Africa 40 recorded returns of 36.35 percent from March 2007 to March 2008, and 49.78per cent annualized on a three year basis, according to S&P.
The S&P Pan Africa Index covers 12 African markets: Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.
The S&P Africa Frontier Index covers eight smaller frontier markets from sub-Saharan Africa, including Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
To further consolidate its dominance on the African and global scale, Intercontinental Bank will on Thursday unveil a new banking service that will take wealth management to another level in the country.
The bank has created a Wealth Management Group that is equipped to provide upscale and world class services in the area of investment management, financial planning, retirement and estate planning for its customers.
The bank's Group Chief Executive, Dr. Erastus B O Akingbola, said the bank is poised to surpass this record.
‘‘We are encouraged by our drive, vision and capacity to double, year on year, all the performance indicators of the bank. We intend to beat our record and we shall,'' he said.
It would be recalled that Intercontinental Bank is the only Nigerian bank to be listed among top 500 financial institutions in the world.