By Stanley Opara

Monday, 3 Jan 2011

The Board of Directors of Unity Bank Plc has been authorised by the shareholders of the bank to divest the bank’s investments in non-banking subsidiaries and associated companies.

The investments, worth more than N6bn, are currently held in seven subsidiaries, three associated companies and 12 other companies spanning insurance, pension fund management, discount house and agriculture, a statement by the company revealed on Friday.

The shareholders, according to the statement, took the decision at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the bank held in Abuja.

The statement said several shareholders, who spoke on behalf of their colleagues at the EGM, informed the Board of Directors that they would prefer stakes in the divested companies rather than cash.

The Chairman of the bank‘s Board of Directors, Prof. Akin Mabogunje, who chaired the EGM, told the shareholders that the divestment had to be carried out to comply with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s guidelines.

Also speaking on the occasion, the Group Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Falalu Bello, was quoted to have said, ”While ensuring optimal compliance, we are adopting a strategy to give shareholders maximum advantage.”

The group managing director also indicated that the board had approved that Unity Bank apply for a national commercial Banking licence being a national franchise from inception. He said the bank had grown its shareholders‘ funds to N42bn as at November 30, 2010, with 237 branches in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

Nigeria‘s premier rating agency, Agusto & Co. Limited, recently assigned a ‘B‘ rating to Unity Bank. The rating agency also attached a ‘stable‘ outlook to the bank.

Agusto based its assessment on Unity Bank‘s audited 2009 accounts and results, noting that the rating reflected the bank‘s liquidity, capitalisation, asset quality and market share.

Meanwhile, Unity Bank reported a third quarter 2010 profit before tax of N10.87bn to the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The figure represents a 190 per cent growth when compared with its financials within the same period in the previous year.

Source: Punch