UT Bank has refused takeover offers from some international entities after the bank’s attempt to sell about 20 percent of its stake.
UT Bank, which is one of Ghana’s indigenous banks, started operating as a financial service institution about three years ago before metamorphosing into a bank in 2009.
The bank’s intention to offload 20 percent of its stake to foreign companies is to allow partners to provide long term funding.
The move however attracted suitors who rather wanted majority stake in the Bank. The Chief Executive Officer of UT Bank, Prince Kofi Amoabeng insisted in an interview with Citi Business that though his outfit is still looking for partners, it will not sell majority of it’s stake.
“UT Bank will not go into the hands of foreign companies, we have had offers from people, people who believe in our modules and therefore want to have majority shares in the company. We cannot tell Ghanaians that a Ghanaian bank has now gone into the hands of foreigners” he said.
“Secondly we cannot tell employees who have dedicated themselves to the growth of this company that the bank has now gone into foreign hands…UT will always remain a Ghanaian bank”.
UT Bank is now spreading its presence in other parts of the World with the loans Business in Nigeria and Germany and currently prospecting in South Africa, Zambia and Sierra Leone.
Mr. Amoabeng told Citi Business that 2010 was a good year and hopes to make inroads in 2011.
“It was a fantastic year, all the staff did their best, we had challenges but they understood us, took their time, we also communicated effectively and in the end we had one big company. For this year, it will be fantastic, everyone is optimistic and we know what we can achieve with what we have”.