Ecobank To Sell Nigerian Stake By Year End

Incorporated (ETI) has said it plans to sell part of its stake in its Nigerian entity, Ecobank Nigeria, by the end of the year even as it may end its battle against its former chief executive officer, Thierry Tanoh, through an out-of-court settlement.

                                 

According to the current chief executive of the Pan-African bank, Albert Essien, the bank may seek an agreement with Tanoh this year over damages exceeding $35 million awarded by the West African courts against his former employer.

Essien, in an interview in Cape Town during the World Economic Forum on Africa, yesterday, said the ETI will sell a stake in Ecobank Nigeria Limited by the end of 2015 to boost the unit’s capital. Ecobank Nigeria is ETI’s biggest subsidiary with $9.4 billion of assets.

The ETI, which largest shareholders are the Johannesburg-based Nedbank Group Ltd and Qatar National Bank SAQ, owns all of Ecobank Nigeria.

“It will be up to Ecobank’s shareholders if they want to buy equity in the Nigerian business,” he said.

A commercial court in Ivory Coast last month ordered Ecobank’s local unit to pay Tanoh 8.2 billion CFA francs ($14 million). That was on top of the $22.5 million Tanoh was awarded in January and February by courts in Ivory Coast and Togo.

A London court blocked those two rulings in April, a judgment Tanoh’s lawyer said he would challenge.

Tanoh left Lome, Togo-based ETI, as the bank is known, more than a year ago after regulators investigated allegations of fraud and poor governance while he was CEO. He denied wrongdoing and took the bank to court for wrongful termination of contract and defamation. ETI says Tanoh’s contract was based on British law and that the two West African courts have no jurisdiction over the matter.

Essien will step down this year, because he has reached the bank’s mandatory retirement age. A successor will be named this month, he said. ETI is due to hold an annual general meeting on June 19 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The share price of ETI, which are traded in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana, fell one percent to N21.61 on the Nigerian Stock Exchange yesterday..