Zenith Bank Commences Operations in UK

admin · Zenith Bank Commences Operations in UK

Zenith Bank Commences Operations in UK

Juwon Obajemu
03.04.2007

Zenith Bank Plc has once again raised the bar of competition with the opening for business of its wholly owned United Kingdom (UK) subsidiary, Zenith Bank UK.

Zenith Bank UK opened for business last Friday, following a rigorous approval process by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK, considered as the strictest financial regulatory authority in the world.

The FSA gave Zenith Bank the nod to open for business, having been impressed by the professionalism and strength of the bank's application for a banking licence and the remittance of the requisite paid up capital for new banks.

The approval of a banking licence for Zenith by the authorities in the UK represents a strong endorsement of the brand, as it is the first wholly owned Nigerian bank without any affiliation to any UK financial institution to be issued such a licence.

It is believed that operating from London, an international financial hub, Zenith Bank UK would serve as the bank's launching pad into other parts of Europe and the rest of the world.

Zenith Bank, one of Nigeria's biggest financial institutions, with interests in pension and insurance, already has a strong presence in Ghana, through its subsidiary, Zenith Bank, Ghana.

Its foray into the European financial market is interpreted as a strategic move to deepen its base and grow the brand.

The bank already has a strategic alliance with respected United States group, J.P Morgan.

Zenith Bank is the second most capitalised company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of N370 billion.

admin · Zenith Bank's N130bn Offer Opens Today

Zenith Bank's N130bn Offer Opens Today

Omoh Gabriel
6th Dec. 2007

ZENITH Bank is today opening its investment doors afresh to the Nigerian public to raise N130 billion, a record target in the history of the Nigerian capital market.

The offer which is a combination of offer for subscription (for new investors) and Rights Issue (for existing shareholders), is made up of Rights Issue of 1,654,557,99 units each at N36.90 per share and public offer of 1,763,300,00 ordinary share of 50 kobo each at 38.90 kobo per share. In the bank¢s first and second outing in fund raising at the capital market, the shares were largely over subscribed.

Shares of Zenith Bank have proved to be excellent investments since the bank was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2004 with generous returns recorded in the form of capital appreciation, dividends and bonus.

The bank¢s stock price has a triple digit increase from N10.90 in 2004 when they were listed to N66.14 per share at the end of trading at the NSE on June 30, 2007, representing a total gain of over N55.24 or over 600 percent per share within 36 months.

After its 2006 public offer, Zenith stocks rose from N16.90 to cross the N60 mark, making it the highest priced banking stock in the market. This represents a total gain of N49.24 per share or 291.36 percent.

Besides the capital appreciation, investors have also reaped from the dividend pay-outs as the bank delivered on its promise by paying out as much as N20 billion since the IPO in 2004. Shareholders received N4.2billion or 70 kobo per share in 2004/2005; N6.6 billion or N1.10 per share in 2005/2006 and N9.2 billion or N1.00 per share in the 2006/2007 financial year.

The dividend payout in the 2006/2007 financial year was in addition to the one bonus share for every four shares held by investors.

Before trading was frozen, as required by law, Zenith stocks traded for N46.09. This means the shares on offer are coming at a discount of at least N10 per share.

The bank¢s first quarter results released recently on the heels of the full year¢s result confirmed Zenith¢s position as a high performer with commendable improvement in all parameters.

Details of the first quarter result showed that the bank also recorded a profit before tax of N10.33 billion, up from N6.41 billion last year while profit after tax amounted to N8.06 billion, showing a remarkable jump of 70 percent over the N4.73 billion recorded for the corresponding period last year.

The operating results of the bank in the last five years indicate an impressive performance on all parameters. Total assets plus contingents grew by 730.06 percent from N153.44 billion as at the end of June 2003 to N1.271 trillion in June 2007. Within the same period, gross earnings increased from N17.8 billion to N94.9 billion, representing a 433.14 percent growth while profit before tax also grew by 372.42 percent from N5.44 billion to N25.7 billion.

Profit after tax for same period rose by 327.27 percent from N4.42 billion to N18.8 billion. Also impressive were the remarkable growth in shareholders funds from N12.651 billion to N114.6 billion, indicating an increase of 823.81 percent and total deposit from N61.5 billion to N634.5 billion, representing a 931.54 percent jump.

The bank has also retained its strong performance on the quality of its assets, beating its own record of 1.5 percent of non-performing loans with a new figure of 1.1 percent as against the industry average of 18 percent.

In an effort to continuously spread its brand globally, Zenith Bank in April 2007 opened its wholly-owned United Kingdom (UK) subsidiary, Zenith Bank UK, following the approval of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK considered as the strictest financial regulatory authority in the world.

The FSA gave Zenith Bank the nod to open for business having been impressed by the strength of the bank¢s application. The bank already has a subsidiary in Accra , Ghana which opened for business in November 2005 and a representative office in Johannesburg, South Africa .

Zenith was recently recognised by the Council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the stock¢s performance this year with the award of ¡Quoted Company of the Year¢. This came shortly after the bank won ¡African Banker of the Year¢ award from the African Investor magazine and the ¡Most Corporate Socially Responsible Bank in Africa¢ from the African Banker magazine.