Fidelity Bank Shareholders approve private placement of 3bn unissued Shares

Fidelity Bank Plc has secured the approval of its shareholders to issue, by way of private placement, the 3,037,414,308 unissued ordinary shares of the bank.

The approval was secured at the Bank’s Extra-Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) which was held in Lagos.

Chairman, Fidelity Bank Plc, Mustafa Chike-Obi, said the EGM was called to ensure the Bank complies with Section 124 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 (CAMA) and Regulation 13 of the Companies Regulations 2021 which require companies with unissued shares at the time of commencement of CAMA 2020 to issue such shares by December 31, 2022.

“After considering the options, the Board resolved that the Company’s outstanding 3,037,414,308 unissued Ordinary Shares of 50Kobo each should be disposed of by way of Private Placement to strategic investors to enable the Bank generate additional capital for continued growth in line with its objectives” explained Chike-Obi.

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, explained that the additional capital would be used to enhance technology infrastructure.

“Fidelity Bank is growing in leaps and bounds and we need to expand our capital base to take advantage of emerging opportunities. We will also use the additional capital to enhance our technology infrastructure to enable us to serve more customers,” she said.

The event had the representatives of various regulators in attendance including the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Exchange Group, Securities and Exchange Commission and Corporate Affairs Commission.

It would be recalled that the Bank recently paid an interim dividend of 10 Kobo per 50 Kobo ordinary share, the first interim dividend payment in the Bank’s 34 year history, on the back of its remarkable H1 2022 results.