By InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE) – Stanbic IBTC Bank said on Tuesday it aims at raising N20.4 billion via rights issue this year and seeking shareholders approval to distribute a scrip dividend to boost its capital base, a Reuters report quoted the bank.
Also, the report quoted Sola David-Borha, chief executive officer (CEO) of the bank as saying that it expects increase regulatory pressure to weigh on industry profits this year and that the bank had revised its 2015 loan growth down to 10 percent, the lower end of its guidance range.
The report says loans have grown four (4) percent in the first six months of this year.
The lender said Standard Bank its parent company was supportive of the cash call and that a price for the share sale would be set after regulatory approvals had been received.
“If we are successful with the scrip dividend, assuming 50 percent of shareholders go for it … together with the rights issues, we should be able to maintain adequate capital,” chief financial officer Arthur Oginga told an investors call.
Also, the report disclosed that the bank’s capital adequacy ratio stood at 10 percent. Return on equity (ROE) declined to 14.2 percent for the first half, compared with 28.9 percent a year earlier. The lender has projected its ROE to reach 18 percent by year-end.
Share price of Stanbic IBTC at the close of business today on the Nigerian bourse declined 3.81 percent to N24.00 from N24.95 per share, underperforming the broad index, which ended down 0.81 percent, its tenth day of losses, the Reuters report said.
Stanbic IBTC Bank last week said its second quarter (Q2) report for the period ended June 30, 2015 dipped 52 percent to N9.53 billion from N19.95 billion recorded the same period of 2014.
The bank also slashed its interim dividend to 0.90 kobo per share, from N1.10 paid the same period of 2014.
The report quoted the bank as saying that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) policy restricting access to dollars on the official interbank market impacted its foreign currency and fixed income trading business as well as a slowdown in foreign portfolio investors.
