Africinvest Financial Sector Limited, an international private funds manager, has invested Euro 2.5 million in Abbey Building Society Plc, one of the primary mortgage institutions in the country.
Euro 1.25 million represents equity investment in the mortgage bank, while the balance of Euro 1.25 million is a convertible loan. Africinvest's investment in the bank was done during its recently concluded private placement, which was heavily oversubscribed.
Abbey Building Society Plc has indicated plans to list four billion shares by introduction on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in June.
According to the Chief Operating Officer of the company, Mr. Ohio Ifiabor, "Going by current plans, about four billion units of the shares of Abbey Building Society should have been listed by introduction on the Nigerian Stock Exchange before end of the first half of this year."
Speaking during the facility signing ceremony in Lagos yesterday, the Chairman of the bank, Chief I.B. Ochonogor, described the institution as "a resilient organisation that had has gone through many phases and still remains strong."
He said the has started putting plans in place to raise its share capital to N5 billion in the next six months to make it the leading primary mortgage institution in the country.
Also speaking in the same vein, the Managing Director Mrs. Rose Ada Okwechime, said the bank started with N5 million share capital 16 years ago, but has significantly increased it over time.
Okwechime said the bank has over N2 billion mortgage portfolio, as well as accessing another N500 million from the National Housing Fund (NHF) backed by bank guarantee for the purpose of making home ownership easy for Nigerians.
She said over 200 schools had also benefited from the bank?s loan facilities, leading to the expansion and development of such schools.
She explained that the bank embarked on a private placement exercise to beef up its share capital because of the anticipation that the mortgage banks would be the next sector after the recapitalisation exercises in both the banking and insurance sectors.
Okwecheme promised that the bank would continue to provide innovative products to meet the housing needs of the public.
The bank's Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Ohio Ifeabor, said the bank's four billion shares would soon be listed at the Nigeria Stock Exchange following the successful outcome of its private placement.
Ifeabor said the bank was on the verge of receiving another N1.2 billion convertible loan from a Dutch bank as well as N2 billion from the United States.
The representative of Afrinvest Financial Sector Limited, Mr. Khaled Ben Jilani, said the objective of the company was to make Abbey a leader and assist it in the development of innovative products to make people own their houses.
Source: Thisday |