By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)- Pan-African lender Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) said on Wednesday it will sell a stake in Ecobank Nigeria Ltd. by the end of 2015 to shore up the unit’s capital, a Bloomberg report quoted Albert Essien, chief executive officer (CEO) of the bank in an interview in Cape Town at the World Economic Forum on Africa.
According to the report, ETI, whose largest shareholders are Johannesburg-based Nedbank Group Ltd. and Qatar National Bank SAQ, owns all of Ecobank Nigeria.
“It will be up to Ecobank’s shareholders if they want to buy equity in the Nigerian business,” he said.
The report disclosed that Essien will step down this year, because he has reached the bank’s mandatory retirement age. He turned 60 last month, the report added.
It said a successor will be named this month, quoting Richard Uku, spokesman of the bank via phone from Lome.
At the close of transactions Wednesday on the Nigerian bourse, shares of ETI climbed up 0.78 percent to N21.99 from N21.82 per share gaining 0.17 kobo.
On the other hand, the pan-African lender said it may end its battle against Thierry Tanoh its former CEO through an out-of-court settlement.
The report said ETI may seek an agreement with Tanoh this year over damages exceeding $35 million awarded by West African courts against it quoting Essien.
“Although the court process will go on, we will ultimately settle amicably, I cannot stop the court process till we have a settlement. Both options will for now be pursued,” he disclosed.
In May, a court in Ivory Coast last month ordered Ecobank to pay Tanoh $14 million which was on top of $22.5 million Tanoh was awarded in January and February by courts in Ivory Coast and Togo.
A London court stopped both rulings in April, a judgment Tanoh’s lawyer said he would challenge.
In March 2014, the pan-African lender announced Tanoh stepped down from his position effective March 12, 2014 following regulatory concerns which centred on poor corporate governance issues and fraud practices on the part of the bank’s management. Essien, then Tanoh’s deputy replaced him as CEO.
