By Okechukwu Nnodim\

Access Bank Plc is set to acquire 75 per cent stake in Intercontinental Bank Plc subject to approval by shareholders of the Deposit Money Bank.

The bank, in a publication on Monday, said it would use N53.5bn it had raised in 2007 to fund the transaction, adding that its directors were to take adequate steps to ensure the successful acquisition of IB Plc.

The bank said, “That subject to any required approval from the regulatory authorities, the directors are hereby authorised to enter into a transaction for the acquisition by the bank through a special purpose vehicle of 75 per cent controlling equity interest in the authorised share capital of Intercontinental Bank Plc under a private placement.”

Access had in July signed an agreement with Intercontinental in a bid to recapitalise the latter ahead of the September 30 deadline by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Intercontinental is one of the nine banks bailed out by the CBN after injecting $4bn into the DMBs in 2009.

Of the rescued banks, three were nationalised by the apex regulatory bank on Friday, August 5, after their licences were revoked as a result of their inability to sign Transaction Implementation Agreements.

The publication noted that shareholders of Access bank would hold an Extraordinary General Meeting on September 26 to give approval to the acquisition.

It said, “That pursuant to the implementation of the foregoing resolution and subject to any required approval from the regulatory authorities, the directors be and are hereby authorised to take all steps as may be required for the bank to enter into a scheme of merger by which the whole undertakings of the company shall be merged with the whole undertakings of Access Bank Plc at such time the directors may determine and upon such terms and conditions that the shareholders may approve subsequent to a court ordered meeting to be convened for that purpose.

Source: Punch