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| Sunday, 20 July 2003 |
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IFC renounces majority stake in NTB The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector financing arm of the World Bank, has renounced the majority of its rights in the just concluded Rights Issue of Nations Trust Bank to the BNP Paribas Bank-managed South Asia Access Fund. IFC, however, will retain its existing shareholding of 7.5 million shares. The total subscriptions by the public for shares exceeded the allotted amount by 18 per cent by the final date of renunciation. IFC first offered all Nations Trust Bank (NTB) employees their allotment of rights. This results in every NTB employee becoming a shareholder of the bank with shares ranging from 100 to 200,000 each. This is the first time that all the staff of a bank or private company become shareholders in the institution where they are employed, having invested their own savings without any financial support from the institution concerned, said Director and CEO NTB Moksevi Prelis. IFC has selected leading international banking group, the BNP Paribas-managed South Asia Access Fund to take up the balance 3.35 million of its share allotment. As a result, the BNP-South Asia Access Fund becomes a major shareholder of Nations Trust with four per cent of the shareholding. NTB's other major shareholders are the John Keells Group with 25 per cent and Central Finance Co with 20 per cent. NTB has been making rapid inroads into the banking sector with new and innovative products and services. It has reached its maximum potential and needed to recapitalise to move to the next level.The Rights Issue for 30 million shares will increase the bank's core capital from the current level to one billion rupees with the capital adequacy ratio projected to increase to 16.8 per cent. NTB, established in 1999, performed exceptionally well during the first quarter of the current year with the business turnover growing to Rs 548 million compared with Rs 167 million in the first quarter of 2002. Deposits reached Rs 5.3 billion and with the acquisition of Waldock Mackenzie in 2002, the asset base has increased to Rs 16.6 billion. Steady growth in business volumes has yielded a net profit for the first quarter of Rs 83.4 million. With 21 branches and service counters and further expansion plans in store, NTB is reinforcing its resolve to establish itself as a prominent player in the financial services industry of Sri Lanka. |
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