Zenith Bank Rights Issue/Public Offer Extended to September 23

Zenith Bank Plc’s Rights Issue and a Public Offer which is set to raise N290 billion has been extended to September 23, 2024.

The Rights Issue offers 5,232,748,964 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N36.00 per share, while the Offer for Subscription presents 2,767,251,036 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N36.50 per share.

Zenith Bank Plc recorded a 98% jump in after-tax profit to N577.8 billion in the first six months of 2024.

Gross earnings for the period ended 30 June 2024 came in at N2.1 trillion, up 117% from N967 billion as at June 2023.

The Rights Issue/Public Offer was extended by 2 weeks as it was scheduled to close on Monday 09, September 2024.

Use of proceeds

Thirty-five percent (35%) of the proceeds will go towards strategic expansion in the form of increasing Zenith’s footprint in Africa and other parts of the world.

Twenty percent (20%) of the proceeds will go to investments to expand infrastructure and Zenith Banks digital capabilities.

Forty-five percent (45%) of the proceeds will be utilized as working capital to support the real sector of the economy with a focus on SME/Retail segments of the business, according to Dame (Dr.) Adaora Umeoji the GMD/CEO of Zenith Bank.

Zenith Banks vision and value makes it No 1

Zenith Bank is raising the least amount of money among its peers undertaking the recapitalization exercise as it already had ample capital buffers, according to Umeoji.

Zenith Bank is today the number-one bank in tier-one capital, shareholders’ funds, market capitalization, profit-after tax, dividend payment, and capital adequacy ratio. The lender paid a total dividend of N4 per share in the 2023 financial year.

Expanding global footprint

Zenith Bank is today present in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, United Kingdom, China, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Umeoji the GMD/CEO of Zenith Bank however said that Zenith Bank had recently obtained a license to open a Paris, France branch which would be leveraged for operations in Francophone Africa beginning with Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire.

All of Zenith’s subsidiaries are profitable and contributing to the growth of the Group, according to Umeoji.

Zenpay a fintech/payments subsidiary of Zenith Bank recently signed a partnership with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) for the Zenpay digital payments solution platform to be used to facilitate African trade.

Zenith Bank gets about 58% of its revenue from corporate customers while retail customers make up the rest at 42 percent.

The top-tier lender controls 25 percent of imports into Nigeria and 40 percent of all exports from Nigeria through trade finance, according to Umeoji.

Get More of our proprietary news and analysis as MoneyCentral is now on WhatsApp Channels  Follow the MoneyCentral Nigeria channel on WhatsApp: Click here!