ETI Secures $250m Loan Facility to Boost Operations

• ETI Secures $250m Loan Facility to Boost Operations

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the Lome, Togo-based parent company of the EcobankGroup Tuesday signed a five-year senior unsecured loan facility of $250 million from Deutsche Bank AG.

In a notification to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)tuesday, ETI explained that the Public InvestmentCompany (PIC) of South Africa, which is one of the major institutional shareholders of ETI, is providing full credit support to Deutsche Bank in this transaction via a sub–participation of risk.

According to the financial institution, this new facility of $250 million would be used primarily to refinance maturing facilities.

ETI recently reported profit growth of 21 per cent for the half year(H1) ended June 30, 2017.

In the H1 results, ETI recorded gross earnings of N389 billion, up 41 per cent from N273 billion in the corresponding period of 2016. Profit before tax rose by 11 per cent to N46.2 billion in 2017, from N41.6 billion in 2016, while profit after tax moved from N31.1 billion in 2016 to N37.7 billion in 2017, show a growth of 21 per cent.

Customers’ deposits stood at N4.235 trillion, while loans and advances ended at N2.899 trillion, compared with N2.82 trillion.

Commenting on the results, Group Chief Executive ofETI, Mr. Ade Ayeyemi, had said: “Our audited half year results demonstrated the benefits of our diversified business model. Despite a fragile macroeconomic backdrop in most of our markets, we still generated a 15.6 per cent return on tangible equity and further improved our cost-to- income ratio to 60.6 per cent, driven by our continued cost reduction initiatives across the network.”

According to him, revenues increased five in constant currency, and highlighted encouraging growth in our Trade and FICC, businesses, thanks to encouraging client activity and improving foreign-exchange markets.

He noted that overall, the bank is making good progress on its strategy and continue to serve our customers diligently. We look forward to the second half of the year with excitement

”We are also happy with the progress we are making on the digital front, particularly on our strategy to enable millions of unbanked Africans have access to financial solutions using our revolutionary Ecobank App and other digital channels. We have also recently announced the appointment of Eric Odhiambo as chief risk officer, to help drive our risk management objectives and improve our risk culture,” Ayeyemi said.