The Trust Bank head office
The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has been asked to back down on the sale of its shares in The Trust Bank to Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) since the local bank faces no threats for survival.
The Coalition for the Protection of Individual Liberties and Constitutional Rights (COPCOR), a pro-National Democratic Congress (NDC) pressure group, which made the call at a press conference in Accra yesterday, also appealed to President John Evan Atta Mills to take prompt action on the proposed sale by personally intervening in the matter.
“The Trust Bank (TTB) must not be sold to a foreign institution. The bank must remain Ghanaian and contribute to the national pride of this great nation,” George Agbenyikey Jnr, the Co-ordinator for Coalition for the Protection of Individual Liberties and Constitutional Rights (COPCOR) told the media at the press conference.
TTB is one of the best performing banks in Ghana and it has met the central bank’s mandatory minimum capital requirement of GH¢60 million even though the Central Bank has set December 2012 as the deadline.
The bank was the first bank in Ghana to surpass the required capital by generating over GH¢60million additional capital from a Renounceable Rights Issue. The dividends of that exercise brought the total shareholders’ funds of the bank to over GH¢122 million at the close of the 2010 financial year.
Since news about the sale of TTB broke, most industry players are particularly unclear about the hasty preparation being made towards the transaction.
They are wondering what could be influencing SSNIT, which holds 61.4 percent stake in TTB, to eagerly sell the sixth largest bank in Ghana without a convincing reason.
The pressure group questioned why Ghana should sell off such an important asset a few months after the recapitalization, alleging that SSNIT is frantically backing the deal with Ecobank without officially informing government.
“We are convinced that the transaction is being fuelled by some greedy individuals who want to enrich their pockets to the detriment of the state. We must all join hands to stop these greedy individuals from benefiting from our sweat, as the workers of this great country’s pension funds are being toyed with by SSNIT,” Mr Agbenyikey noted but declined to mention the names of the individuals for now.
He told the press that individuals on the board of SSNIT, who were perceived to be opposed to the transaction, had been replaced.
“The Trust in the early part of this year withdrew two directors of TTB namely Kojo Okai Andah and Thompson K. Abu-Bakr Bibilazu and replaced them with Daniel Kwabla King –Chairman of SSNIT’s Board; Daniel N.O Sackey – Director and Capt (Rtd) Assassie Gyimah – Director to the board of TTB for 2011,” he alleged.
The Co-ordinator of COPCOR raised doubts about the decision by the TTB Board to call off an earlier merger talks with the Merchant Bank in favour of a Rights Issues which adequately raised more funds than anticipated, only to turn round now to want to sell the bank to a rival bank.
“Is it true that SSNIT bullied the other shareholders with their might by not allowing them to exercise their pre-emptive rights (rights of first refusal) before considering the sale to ETI, bearing in mind that SSNIT had earlier benefited from such rights when the then majority shareholder (Banque Belgolaise of Belgium) proposed to sell their interest to Bank of Africa (BOA),” he asked.
Efforts by CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE to contact officials of SSNIT to answer the questions raised by industry players, including COPCOR proved futile as they were tight-lipped.
But this paper would follow-up on the matter and bring any new development to readers.
Meanwhile, SSNIT and Ecobank Ghana have appointed Strategic African Securities (SAS), owned by Togbe Afede XIV and Ecobank Development Corporation (EDC) to serve as transactional advisers to a deal that might be thrown out if government’s approval does not fall through.
By Felix Dela Klutse