By Ademola Alawiye

Monday, 24 Jan 2011

Oceanic Bank International Plc has said that the Asset Management Coporation of Nigeria’s financial support will bring the bank’s negative shareholders’ fund to zero.

A statement released by the bank on Friday said, “AMCON’s financial accommodation will bring the negative shareholders’ funds to zero.”

The bank stated that it intended to achieve the required capitalisation for a national bank through profit from operations, sale of assets to AMCON and injection of fresh capital from strategic investors.

The bank had since announced a comprehensive recapitalisation plan to achieve the N25bn minimum capitalisation required for national commercial banks.

The Managing Director, Oceanic Bank, Mr. John Aboh, said that the bank’s transformation programme had been boosted by investor confidence.

He said, “The bank’s share price has been on upward swing as investors and customers continue to express confidence in the bank’s transformation and recapitalisation programme. Our robust recapitalisation plan will make Oceanic emerge stronger and better positioned for the future.”

He noted that ongoing discussions point to a successful process that would ensure customers and shareholders continued to enjoy the bank’s rich pedigree of efficient services and outstanding performance.

He said, “The future of Oceanic Bank is bright and the confidence reposed in us by our customers and shareholders further propels us to raise the stakes of our performance to ensure efficient services and good return for all stakeholders.”

The statement said that the bank sustained its significant price gains on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, as it moved up 26.64 per cent in a week of active trading on the NSE.

It added, “Going by statistics sourced from the NSE, the bank’s shares opened the week at N2.74 but closed Friday’s trading at N3.47, a price gain of 74 kobo in five days. The gain by Oceanic Bank in the second week brought the bank’s cumulative price gain for the first two weeks of the year to 32.44 percent.”

“Now operating with an enhanced liquidity ratio that is well above the 25 per cent level required by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the bank ended the 2010 financial year with over 15 per cent growth in deposit to close at over N630bn.”

Oceanic Bank, which recently announced its decision to adopt a national banking licence with a receipt of over N200bn from the AMCON, recently re-entered the NSE-30 Index following the last quarterly review by the NSE.

 

Source: Punch