By Eromosele Abiodun

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Tuesday said   that  it had received schemes of arrangement from three rescued banks, a move that will formally alter the structure and share capital of the banks.
SEC’s Head of Media, Mr. Lanre Oloyi, who confirmed the development in a telephone chat with THISDAY, said the commissionwould do everything possible to ensure that the banks were able to formalise the mergers on time.

The banks, he said, are Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc and Finbank Plc.The commission had recently complained that it did not receive the   pre-merger notice of the rescued banks since signing their Transaction Implementation Agreements (TIAs).

The three rescued banks had signed their respective TIA with preferred investors. TIA is an agreement, which defines the relationship between the rescued bank and its potential investors. The TIA document, which is usually bulky, officially announces the engagements by the parties and will be followed afterwards with the merger.

While Intercontinental Bank Plc and Access Bank Plc are seeking to combine their business by signing their TIA, FinBank Bank Plc signed a TIA with First City Monument Bank Plc (FCMB) as well as Union Bank Plc which also signed an agreement with  its core investor- African Capital Alliance Consortium (ACA Consortium).

Director-General of SEC, Ms. Arunma Oteh, had last Monday in Lagos stated that SEC was working to ensure that it cleared the TIAs submitted by the five rescued banks before September 30 deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Oteh, said the commission had deployed enough personnel to ensure that their cases were treated urgently.

The SEC boss, said the commission had assigned more resources to review the applications to ensure approvals were completed ahead of the September 30 deadline.

According to Oteh, “the commission’s team is working all hours to complete the due diligence required for the submissions made by the banks.”

She explained that there were no delays in the processing of applications adding that, “SEC as a responsible organisation takes its mandate of investors’ protection with utmost seriousness.

Oteh said: “The SEC always ensures that our due diligence on any transaction is efficient and comprehensive,” she said.

The director-general noted that the commission recognised the importance of the TIAs to the resolution of the banking sector challenges, adding that SEC would ensure the appropriate thing was done.

Source: ThisDay