Posted by EMEKA OKOROANYANWU on
Group Managing Director and Chief Executive, Officer of Union Bank of Nigeria, Mr Bartholomew Ebong, on Wednesday explained that the bank was coming to the Capital Market to raise N301 billion needed to prepare the bank for the challenges of the post consolidation challenges.
Group Managing Director and Chief Executive, Officer of Union Bank of Nigeria, Mr Bartholomew Ebong, on Wednesday explained that the bank was coming to the Capital Market to raise N301 billion needed to prepare the bank for the challenges of the post consolidation challenges.
At a briefing for Business Editors of leading media institutions at the bank's corporate head office in Lagos, Ebong said the jumbo offer, which would be a combination of public offer for subscription and rights issue, was intended to position the bank strongly for growth and to handle more large ticket transactions, like the Independent Power Projects (IPP), refineries and downstream oil related activities in the country.
He said that the board and management of the bank intend to use the proposed offer to achieve the dream of making the bank one of the largest financial institutions in the country and by extension achieve the country's vision 2020 dream.
He stated that the offer would empower the bank to implement its mandate of doing bigger businesses locally and internationally, particularly with respect to financing infrastructure acquisition for entrepreneurs in the telecommunications, oil and gas and allied sectors.
According to him, buying the Union Bank offer will be the best investment decision that any investor would make this year, considering the current performance and rate of return it has given over the past few years.
Ebong, who explained that Union Bank was coming to the market to help grow the Nigeria economy, pointed out that those who bought the bank's shares in 2005, have since recovered their money through dividend, capital appreciation and consistent growth it has recorded over the years.
He noted that as an organization, the bank stands as one of the most liquid financial institutions in the country while all its indices pointed to consistent growth, stressing however, that the bank has capacity to absorb oversubscription when it comes.
The Union Bank offer which would be sold at N36 per share for the offer for subscription and N35 for the rights issue is expected to open on Monday August 18, 2008.