28 November 2011
FINANCE Bank Zambia (FBZ) will float 40 per cent of its stake on Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE) and two other bourses, expecting to raise US$ 100 million.
Apart from LuSE, Finance Bank, which narrowly survived a takeover, intends to float shares on the London (LSE) and Johannesburg (JSX). FBZ chairman Rajan Mahtani said the bank was presently set on a clean-up process and that it would dedicate the whole of 2012 to restore its high status before listing.
“We are going to list Finance Bank Zambia on the Lusaka, Johannesburg and London Stock Exchanges simultaneously but that would only be in the first quarter of 2012. We are now focused on restoring our bank’s pride in the next 12 months,” he said, in interview in Lusaka.
FBZ, the country’s fifth largest bank, last month survived a takeover by FNB after the President Michael Sata-led government rescinded the sale by Bank of Zambia and gave it back to its original owners.
Dr Mahtani said his bank had always complied with the banking rules and that after concerns raised by the Central Bank, FBZ had engaged the banking authority over the ‘genuine concerns’.
Finance Bank last week held a meeting with officials from shareholders Suisse Credit led by Chris Carson over the future of the bank. Credit Suisse owns 40 per cent of stake in the 23 year-old bank.
Dr Mahtani explained that the majority shareholders would place 20 per cent of their stake on the stock exchanges and the other 20 per cent would be from Credit Suisse.
Dr Mahtani reiterated the bank’s desire to continue expanding within Zambia and the entire southern African region. He said in the next one year, FBZ subsidiary, Micro-Finance Zambia would provide micro financing to a good number of small and medium enterprises thereby create employment for the youth and others in rural areas. Finance Bank recently joined a horde of banks in slashing the base lending rates, which now stands at 15.5 per cent.
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