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\n<\/div>\nAn Executive Director of OmniBsic Bank has given the firm assurance of his bank meeting the GH\u00a2400 million minimum capital requirement set for commercial banks in the country.<\/p>\n
Philip Oti Mensah\u2019s assurance comes as some universal banks await on the Ghana Amalgamated Trust (GAT) to meet the end of March 2019 deadline set by the Bank of Ghana.<\/p>\n
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GAT is said to have secured about GH\u00a22 billion from investors during the roadshow for its five scheduled corporate bond sale.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The secured funds are said to be in the form of commitment even before the actual issuance of the bond for investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Speaking to JoyBusiness Mr Oti Mensah said the GAT was on course to help his bank meet the capital requirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see GAT working as a private equity fund, regardless of the way it is structured with government backing it. This is an investor and as you may know with experience, such investors take time to do analysis and check on institutions before they invest in them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And so far am very much impressed with the work they have done, with the professionalism and the processes that GAT is going through not only make the firm decision but also bring the money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Oti Mensah further stated that, \u00a0\u201cwe\u2019ve been engaging them and they have also engaged us, bringing in some consultant to do the assessment, PWC were here to do the financial due diligence and the legal due diligence was done by the Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah and so far everything is going well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The two financial institutions secured a no objection to the process in a letter dated August 14, 2018, from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) on their planned “marriage”.<\/p>\n
Mr Oti Mensah said he sees very good effort and very good progress and indicating that before the end of the month of March the funds would have dropped.<\/p>\n
Conditions for “no objection” for the merger<\/b><\/p>\n
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The letter from the BoG, however, stated that no objection would be considered after only all the necessary documentation has been submitted for review.<\/p>\n
Reasons for merger<\/b><\/p>\n
Earlier, the two banks said their reason to merge was based on the two banks being of similar balance sheet sizes and similar business models.<\/p>\n
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They would like to continue serving the SME market due to the huge potential and impact on the economy of Ghana. The merger will create a bigger Bank with the capacity to manage the opportunities and risks thereof.<\/p>\n
Also, the combined entity will have 46 branches, spread across the country to improve service delivery to our over 150,000 customers.
Status of the two banks<\/p>\n
The two banks say they have maintained and published unqualified audited financial statements as required by the Bank of Ghana, and have Capital Adequacy Ratios (CAR) above the BOG\u2019s minimum requirement of 10%.<\/p>\n
They also stated that they have never received liquidity support from the Central Bank.<\/p>\n
“In support of the merger, existing and potential shareholders have shown commitment to increase capital to fill the shortfall in the new Minimum Capital Requirement of \u00a2400 million, before December 31, 2018 deadline”.<\/p>\n
The Banks have also agreed to ensure that there will be no job losses for the permanent staff due to the merger.
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