Fidelity Bank has officially initiated a capital-raising campaign to secure approximately N127.1bn through a public offer and a rights issue.
The bank aims to generate N97.5bn from the public offer and an additional N29.6bn from the rights issue.
The rights issue will provide existing shareholders with one new ordinary share for every 10 ordinary shares held as of January 5, 2024, at a price of N9.25 per share. Concurrently, the public offer will make 10,000,000,000 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each available to the general public at N9.75 per share.
The signing ceremony for this dual offer took place in the Board Room of Fidelity Bank’s headquarters in Lagos on Wednesday. Managing Director and CEO Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe revealed that the proceeds will be used to enhance IT infrastructure, expand business operations regionally, and invest in product distribution channels.
Stanbic IBTC Capital is leading the issuance of the combined offer, supported by Iron Global Markets Limited, Cowry Asset Management Limited, Afrinvest Capital Limited, FSL Securities Limited, Futureview Financial Services Limited, Iroko Capital Market Advisory Limited, Kairos Capital Limited, and Planet Capital Limited.
The rights issue and public offer acceptance and application lists will open on Thursday, June 20, 2024, and close on Monday, July 29, 2024.
Oladele Sotubo, CEO of Stanbic IBTC Capital, praised Fidelity Bank’s leadership for their dedication to meeting the CBN’s revised capital requirements. He highlighted that this move could inspire other corporations to leverage equity capital markets for their funding needs.
Fidelity Bank’s shareholders had previously approved the rights issue and public offer during an Extraordinary General Meeting in August 2023. With an international operating license from the CBN, Fidelity Bank aims to increase its capital base to N500bn within the next two years. The CBN is currently reviewing the capital-raising plans submitted by banks following the April 30th deadline.
