Access Bank sells pension stake to Stanbic IBTC

Access Bank Plc has sold its 17.65 per cent equity stake in Stanbic IBTC Pension Manager Limited (SIPML) to Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, the majority shareholder of SIPML.

Access Bank at the weekend confirmed the sale of its equity stake in SIPML, stating that it had secured all necessary regulatory approvals for the sale.

Access Bank’s share price rose by 4.99 per cent to N6.94 at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as investors responded at the weekend to the inflow of the extraordinary, non-operational income. However, Stanbic IBTC Holdings’ share price simultaneously declined marginally by 0.06 per cent to N17.80 per share.

The divestment was in continuation of the sale of the non core banking businesses of Access Bank in compliance with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s new licensing regime. In 2010, the CBN repealed universal banking licences and issued the Regulation on Scope of Banking Activities & Ancillary Matters, No. 3 which became effective on November 15, 2010; prohibiting banks from undertaking non-banking activities.

The regulation classified banking into three categories including commercial banking, merchant banking and specialised banking. Following this, Access Bank had opted to operate as a commercial bank with international authorisation and thus the need to divest its equities in its non-banking subsidiaries.

Four banks including Stanbic IBTC, First Bank of Nigeria, First City Monument Bank and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated had chosen to form holding companies to hold their non-core banking businesses.

Access Bank had in furtherance of the divestment earlier unbundled and distributed the bank’s equity stake in Wapic Insurance Plc to shareholders of the bank in proportion to their equities in the bank.

According to the scheme of arrangement for unbundling and distribution of Access Bank’s 4.88 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each in Wapic, shareholders of Access Bank received proportionate equities in Wapic based on their shareholdings in the bank. The distribution was based on a determined allocation ratio of 4.69.

The number of the scheme shares that each shareholder was entitled to was calculated by dividing the number of his shareholding in Access Bank by the allocation ratio.

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