First Bank is Quoted Company of the Year
First Bank of Nigeria Plc has been named the Quoted Company of the Year 2007 by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The
award was given to FirstBank for its “continuing commitment to
corporate governance and improved disclosure levels in the reporting of
its financials” at the annual NSE dinner held in Lagos Thursday night.
The
bank’s market capitalisation had crossed the N1 trillion mark in
February 2008, the first Nigerian company to reach this threshold, “and
the clearest evidence of the market’s estimation of its worth”, the
bank’s Head, Corporate Planning & Group Coordination, Mr. Hafiz
Bakare, said in a statement yesterday.
Several months down the line,
and in spite of the downturn in the market, the bank remains the most
capitalised stock on the floor of the NSE _ almost twice as big as the
second most capitalised company.
The bank also emerged joint
winner of the NSE’s 2007 President’s Merit Award for the banking sector
“for the presentation, quality and depth of its annual report and
accounts for the year 2007”.
Inaugurated in 1972 by the NSE, the
award, aimed at promoting corporate governance and creating healthy
competition among quoted companies, was received by the bank’s
Executive Director, Risk & Management Control, Mr. Lamido Sanusi,
at the NSE’s 31st Annual President’s Merit Award.
A pioneering
supporter of best-fit corporate governance practice in the country,
FirstBank’s disclosure levels have earned it consistent plaudits from
rating agencies, since 2003 when its annual reports and accounts
included an industry-first corporate governance section, including
considerable details on the bank’s management structures and processes,
the statement said.
“FirstBank’s corporate governance practice
remains at the industry’s cutting-edge. This is in keeping with the
bank’s commitment each year to increase the quality and breadth of its
financial and non-financial communications with stakeholders,” Bakare
said.
The bank’s 2008 annual reports and accounts comprise a “Risk
Management Disclosure” section, which is said to have considerably
raised investors’ and analysts’ expectation bar as the bank provides
responsible leadership within corporate Nigeria.
Local and
international investors’ enthusiasm played key roles in one of the
defining moments in the bank’s annals _ the floating in 2007 of the
biggest offer in the history of the country’s capital market, at the
time, with a value of N100 billion (hybrid of rights and public offer
in equal proportions) and public offer subscription of over 750 per
cent.
This lifted the number of the bank’s shareholders from
400,000 to well over 1.3 million. This “unequivocal testimony” to the
strength of the bank’s equity is under girded by the bank’s highly
diversified board, competent, reliable, and stable management, strong
economic value, and good ethical practice and high transparency level,
the statement said.
FirstBank, the first Nigerian bank to open an
offshore business location in the United Kingdom (UK), is winning this
award in the banking category for the 13th time.
In addition to
its South African Representative Office, FirstBank’s wholly owned
subsidiary in the UK, FBN Bank (UK) Limited recently opened its Paris
branch, thus becoming the first Nigerian bank with a presence in the
Euro Area (outside of the UK).
Other industry players have since
leveraged the bank’s pioneering presence in the UK, and the regulatory
goodwill engendered by its focused and responsible operations there to
deepen participation in the UK market, the company said.
A
multi-award winner over the years, the bank will witness a major baton
change on January 1 2009, as Mr. Lamido Sanusi, Executive Director,
Risk & Management Control takes over from Mr. Jacobs Moyo Ajekigbe
as Managing Director/Chief Executive of the bank.
Mr. Ajekigbe
will be retiring from the bank on December 31, 2008 after 31 years in
the service of the bank, six of which were spent as helmsman driving
landmark achievements.
Despite the lull in the market, the bank is
seen as the delight of investors, “to whom it has consistently
delivered value over the years, with its stable dividend payout rate;
and yearly scrip issue”, Bakare noted.
This performance has been
achieved on the back of consistent financial results which in terms of
shareholder funds saw FirstBank consolidate its leadership of the
industry in the year ended March 2008, with a 325.2 per cent growth in
shareholders’ funds from N83.63 billion in the preceding year to
N355.63 billion – the largest for any company in the country.
With
its shareholders’ funds currently in excess of the combined value for
the 89 banks pre-consolidation, “FirstBank’s strategy is anchored on
leveraging the windows of opportunity that have been opened by the
ongoing reforms to the economy, all of which have allowed it to better
position its operations to offer improved value propositions to its
customers, while raising the industry’s competition stakes”, he said
Source : Thisday newspaper 17 Nov, 2008
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