Shareholders approve UBA holding company structure

Shareholders of United Bank for Africa Plc have given approval to the bank on its adoption of a new holding company structure.Specifically, the shareholders, at the Court-Ordered meeting in Lagos on Thursday, approved the restructuring of the bank into a financial services holding company.The National Coordinator, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Mr. Sunny Nwosu, said, "We want to commend this bank for this initiative, as this structure would ensure that our investments are protected to a large extent, and so we are impressed that the bank did all they could to ensure that they did not lose a single property of investors, and for that we are grateful."However, what we ask of the board is to ensure that shareholders are considered in the structure of the board of the new companies that they are setting up, and make sure that we play a good role in these activities."He also pleaded that the bank should ensure that the interests of its employees are protected so that they would not lose their jobs as a result of the restructuring process. The President, Association for the Advancement of the Rights of Nigerian Shareholders, Mr. Farouk Umar, also commended the company for largely taking the interest of shareholders to heart, adding that it was important that companies carried shareholders along in any primary decision they had to take as regards their investments.Another shareholder, Mr. Nonah Awoh, noted that the interest of minority shareholders had to be fully protected especially if it came to the issue of fractional shares, adding that the interest of all shareholders was important for the growth in any business.Reacting to this, the Group Managing Director, UBA, Mr. Phillip Oduoza, assured investors that the restructuring would have no negative impact on the existing investments of shareholders.He also added that no employee would suffer as a result of the new structure, because the change in ownership structure would not affect the internal operations of the institution.The Executive Director, UBAs Group Executive Office, Mr. Emmanuel Nnorom, said the Holdco structure created a unique platform for a broader range of business and service offerings to entrench the Groups market competitiveness and allow respective management of each entity to be better focused.Nnorom noted that by the new structure, UBA would remain listed entity on the NSE, while existing shareholders would cede 60 per cent of their holding in UBA Plc for 100 per cent ownership of UBA Holdings Plc."In addition, UBA Plc will divest its ownership of African banking and non-commercial banking subsidiaries to UBA Africa Holdings Plc and UBA Capital Holdings Plc. These two entities will in turn be wholly owned by UBA Holdings Plc," he stated.
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