Shareholders of Oceanic Bank International Plc (OCEANIC), a Nigerian lender that was bailed out by the central bank in 2009, will meet on Sept. 27 to decide on a plan by Ecobank Transnational Inc. (ETI) to acquire it.
Investors will discuss the transfer of 55 billion naira ($355 million) worth of shares to Lome, Togo-based Ecobank Transnational, the lender that operates in more than 30 African nations, according to an e-mailed statement from Oceanic.
Shareholders will also decide how much stock will remain in the hands of current investors in the Lagos-based lender and approve giving shares worth 290 billion naira to the Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria, known as Amcon, in order to bring shareholders’ funds from negative to zero.
Oceanic Bank was among eight lenders whose chief executives were fired by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2009 after a lending crisis threatened to collapse some of the country’s financial institutions.
The central bank bailed out the lenders with 620 billion naira and created Amcon to buy non-performing loans of the banks to enable them to rebuild their balance sheets and resume lending. It gave the banks a Sept. 30 deadline this year to recapitalize or face liquidation or nationalization.
