By InvestAdvocate

(INVESTADVOCATE)-Shareholders of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc (UBN) Friday overwhelmingly approved the Recapitalisation plan of the Bank at a Court Ordered meeting held in Abuja Nigeria.

This was contained a Statement by the Management of the Bank and made available to InvestAdvocate in Lagos Nigeria.

The Statement affirmed that at the Court Ordered Meeting held in Abuja Nigeria, 2955 shareholders translating to a total number of 2,174,349,978 shares voted in favour of the scheme.

“This represents 99.9 percent (99.9%) of the value of shares of shareholders present at the meeting. Only 189,000 shares voted against the scheme, representing 0.01 per cent of value of shares of shareholders present at the meeting” the Statement said.

According to the Statement, upon the scheme coming into effect, existing shareholders would retain 2, 533,125,000 ordinary shares in the recapitalised Union Bank.

In the same vein, the shareholders called on every stakeholder to take up their Rights Issue in full so as to preserve their capital value in the Bank.

Also, the value of the recapitalised Union Bank would rise, thereby enhancing shareholder value.

Following this development, Union Bank has projected Profit after Tax (PAT) of N9.2billion, N17.2billion and N19.4 billion for the Years Ended December 31, 2002; 2013 and 2014 respectively.

“In view of the forecast, the effect of the Scheme on the returns of existing shareholders would be accretive in the medium to long-term” the Statement said.

However, Funke Osibodu, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (GMD/CEO) of Union Bank appreciated the shareholders for their support and cooperation.

According to her, the Rights Issue would open in October, following the shareholders and regulatory approval.

Also, at the Bank’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held immediately after the Court Ordered Meeting, shareholders also unanimously endorsed all the special resolutions, including authorising the Board of Directors (BOD) to take all necessary steps to facilitate and give effect to the Transaction Implementation Agreement (TIA) and the Management Services Agreement, among others.

As earlier reported, the Scheme of Arrangement the Bank signed with the core investor, African Capital Alliance Consortium (ACA) which would be investing $750 million and would be allotted 60% of the Bank’s total shares, while the remaining 19% shares will be allotted to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and 21% to existing shareholders.

The Bank had on Thursday in Lagos Nigeria notified the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) that the Qualification Date for September 30 2011 has been scheduled to enable it update its Register for the purpose of its proposed Rights Issue of 1,407,291,667 Ordinary Shares of 50 Kobo each at N6.81 Kobo per share in the ratio of five (5) new Ordinary Shares for nine (9) Ordinary Shares held.