Posted by By Anas A. Galadima on
Managing Director, of Inland Bank Nigeria Plc, Alhaji Zannah Lamba revealed yesterday that First Inland Bank, the new banking group which it is to form with First Atlantic Bank, is currently holding talks with about three other banks with the hope of acquiring two of them as a way of strengthening the new bank to properly position it for greater challenges in the post consolidation era.
Managing Director, of Inland Bank Nigeria Plc, Alhaji Zannah Lamba revealed yesterday that First Inland Bank, the new banking group which it is to form with First Atlantic Bank, is currently holding talks with about three other banks with the hope of acquiring two of them as a way of strengthening the new bank to properly position it for greater challenges in the post consolidation era.
Also, shareholders of Inland Bank Nigeria Plc yesterday endorsed the bank's merger plan with First Atlantic Bank Plc to form First Inland Bank Plc, at a Court Ordered Meeting held in Abuja
Speaking at the meeting yesterday, Alhaji Zannah said the new bank's bid acquire about two other banks will pro-perly position it to face greater challenger in the post consolidation era. He however did not mention names of the banks that would be acquired, even as he pointed out that the talks have not been concluded on the matter.
He said the unanimous endorsement of the bank's merger plan by its share holders will enable it move to the next stage of the consolidation process which involves filling all the necessary documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the court that ordered the meeting.
The MD noted that, already, the First Inland Bank group has raised a total of about N21billion in a bid to meet the N25billion minimum recapi-talization as required by the CBN, adding that some existing shareholders of the bank have indicated willingness to pro-vide more funds so that the N25billion can be met before December.
In his address, the Chairman of the bank, Alhaji Muhammad Danmadami said the merger will offer both banks "with challen-ges as well as excellent oppor-tunity to take advantage of sy-nergies of operations in the emerging competitive banking industry", adding that the it would also lead to increased shareholders returns and better employee welfare.
For the merger to be effec-tive, all shareholders of First Atlantic bank would surrender their shares at a transfer rate of 2 ordinary shares of the bank of 50k each for 3 ordinary shares of 50k each in inland bank. The name would then be changed to First Atlantic bank
Speaking on behalf of shareholders of the bank, National Coordinator of Independent shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), chief S. N. Nwosu charged the board and management of the new bank to work hard and be proactive in order for them to be able to meet challenges in the post consolidation era, even as he commended some current directors of the bank for accepting to relinquish their positions in order for the new group to take off.
He urged the CBN to consider creating a two tier banking industry so that banks that do not raise N25billion by December this year will not be thrown out of business but still have other kinds of banking activities to perform, a situation which he said would save jobs and secure shareholders funds in those banks.
Another shareholder and executive of ISAN, A. A. Adeleke, commended the bank for choosing First Atlantic bank as its merging partner as he said "this merger is actually the first true merger in terms of amalgamating the north and the south"