Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr, has injected $150 million into the bank, two weeks after the Central Bank of Nigeria removed the executive management of Equitorial Trust Bank, billionaire businessman. Confirming this yesterday sources within the Central Bank said they had received notification from Adenuga to inject $150 million into ETB and that the letter is being considered with a view to making a final decision soon.
NDIC sources who are conversant with the issue also stated that the development is encouraging and will be viewed by the CBN as “one less problem off its back.”
One official added that preliminary investigations into ETB by its new management had shown that Adenuga, who before CBN’s intervention two weeks ago, held controlling interest in the bank, was not involved in insider lending, money laundering or any untoward criminal activity.
However, he added that even though the CBN will encourage the recapitalization of the bank, it will not expend too much energy on ETB because “it is a private bank not quoted on the stock exchange, accounting for about one per cent of market share.”
He explained that following the capital injection by Adenuga, the CBN will also like to see a diversified shareholder base in ETB and would therefore encourage the bank to either attract additional capital from other investors, merge with another bank, or be acquired.
“It will be best for ETB if no single shareholder exerts undue influence on the bank, so what we will encourage is that new investors still inject additional capital into the bank, or it merges with another bank, or is acquired,” he explained.
ETB was one of three banks taken over by the CBN on October 2, 2009 following the second phase of the audit exercise undertaken for 14 banks in the country by the Central Bank and the National Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The other banks affected by CBN’s intervention two weeks ago are Spring Bank Plc and BankPHB Plc. All three banks had their executive management sacked by the CBN and subsequently replaced with interim CEOs.
Two other banks, Wema Bank Plc and Unity Bank Plc were given till June 2010 to recapitalise.