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Access Bank of Nigeria Plans to Buy 75% of Intercontinental Bank

By on August 30, 2011

Access Bank Plc (ACCESS), a Nigerian lender, will seek approval from its shareholders to buy 75 percent of Intercontinental Bank Plc , which was bailed out by the West African nation’s central bank in 2009.

Shareholders will also be asked at a meeting on Sept. 26 to approve the use of 53.5 billion naira ($345.5 million) it raised in a public offer in 2007 to fund the transaction, the Lagos- based lender said today in an e-mailed statement. The deal will give Access Bank “controlling equity interest in the authorized share capital” of Intercontinental, the bank said in the statement.

Access’s shares fell to the lowest since November 2009, losing 28 kobo, or 4.8 percent, to close at 5.57 naira in Lagos.

The Central Bank of Nigeria fired the chief executives of eight of the nation’s 24 lenders in 2009 after a debt crisis threatened the banking industry with collapse. It bailed out the eight lenders, including Intercontinental, with 620 billion naira.

Three of the bailed-out banks, Afribank Plc, Bank PHB Plc and Spring Bank Plc, were nationalized by the government on Aug. 5 and given new names after they were deemed unlikely to meet the recapitalization deadline. Five others, including Union Bank Nigeria Plc, Intercontinental Bank, Finbank Plc, Oceanic Bank International Plc and Equitorial Trust Bank, have signed agreements to be acquired by other lenders.

Bloomberg