Oceanic to transfer 40.17% stake to Ecobank

Oceanic Bank hassaid it intends toseek shareholders' approval for the transfer of 40.17 per cent of its holdings to Ecobank Transnational Incorporation, which it signed a merger deal with last month.In a notice to shareholders obtained by Nigerian Tribune, Oceanic Bank stated that the proposal would hand N49.80 percent of its shares to the state-owned Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), in exchange for the N290.15 billion rescue package it had received over this year.Oceanic Bank signed an agreement with Ecobank last month, paving the way for the rescued bank to recapitalise in time.This was the second announcement of detailed plans on how five banks that had struck recapitalisation deals with bailed-out rivals intend to carry out their mergers.Access Bank said last Thursday that it would spend N50billion to acquire a 75 percent stake in Intercontinental Bank.Shareholders hope such deals will mark the beginning of the end of Nigeria's banking crisis.Uncertainty over its resolution has weighed on banking stocks, which make up about two thirds of the Stock Exchange, and pushed the equity index to 20-month lows.The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) bailed out the nine banks in 2009 for N620 billion because auditors deemed them so poorly capitalised they posed a risk to the economyThe scheme giving AMCON, the state-owned 'bad bank' set up last year to absorb non-performing loans from the banking sector in exchange for government bonds, a controlling stake was approved by a Federal High Court on Thursday, it said.A court-ordered mandatory meeting to vote on the deal would be held on September 27, the notice said.At the mandatory meeting, the bank will seek to reduce its share capital to N889.31 million, comprising 1.778 billion shares of 50 kobo each, through the cancellation of the entire paid up capital.Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank , Finbank , Union Bank and Equatorial Trust Bank have signed agreements with investors, but shareholders have yet to accept the deals, ahead of the apex bank's September 30 deadline.
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