79% of ETI preference shareholders meet conversion deadline

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), parent company of the Ecobank Group, has said that 79 percent of its preference shareholders were able to meet the deadline of October 31^st to indicate their intent of converting to ordinary shareholding.

According to a statement from the company, out of an outstanding of 1,031,515,911 preference shares, as at the end of December 2015, the holders of 819,424,548 preference shares exercised their right to convert their preference shares into ordinary shares in the company, one of which is Qatar National Bank (QNB), with 732,277,056 preference shares.

The statement explained that once the requisite approvals are obtained, these preferences shares will result in 630,325,909 ETI ordinary shares at an implied conversion price of N21.32 per new ordinary share.

ETI Group Chief Executive Officer, Ade Ayeyemi notes: “We appreciate the trust and confidence that the preference shareholders, particularly QNB, have in Ecobank. With the support of all our shareholders, we shall continue to provide the best quality banking services to our numerous clients across the largest banking network in Africa.”

The total ETI shares will thus increase to 24,730,354,443 ordinary shares upon conversion.

ETI said it is taking all necessary steps to get the shares converted, issued and listed on the three stock exchanges on which the company is listed: the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos, the Ghana Stock Exchange in Accra and the West Africa Stock Exchange (BRVM) in Abidjan.

It would be recalled that a resolution passed on the 14th of September 2011, authorized the ETI to acquire Oceanic Bank International Plc (Oceanic). In line with the terms on conversion of preference shares recommended to Oceanic shareholders by the Oceanic board, as stated in the scheme of arrangement documents, and approved by Oceanic shareholders, preference shareholders had the right, exercisable at any time between the third anniversary of the issue date and the fifth anniversary of this date, to convert their preference shares into ordinary shares in the company at the rate of one preference share to 0.76923 ordinary share. Preference shareholders, therefore, had the right to convert their preference shares up to Monday the 31st of October, 2016.