FCMB Joins The Fray, To Raise $300m In Eurobonds

FCMB Group Plc, the lender that acquired bailed-out FinBank Plc three years ago, is planning to raise about $300m this year to boost consumer lending.

Bloomberg quoted the Chief Executive Officer, FCMB, Mr. Ladi Balogun, as saying that the lender might consider issuing Eurobonds if market conditions were favourable.

“Our preferred source of funding has been the loan markets as opposed to bond markets due to more stable pricing,” he said. “We will probably get to about 40 per cent of our loan book being personal lending.”

The CEO said FCMB was planning to increase its loan book by about 20 per cent to N540bn ($3.3bn) this year, as it joined other banks in raising debt to boost credit to consumers

and fund infrastructure in Africa’s largest economy.

The lender acquired FinBank in 2011, one of the eight banks bailed out by the Central Bank of Nigeria during a debt crisis in 2009.

The bank is targeting a return on equity of 15 per cent this year and 20 per cent in 2016, compared with 13 per cent in 2013, Balogun said.

FCMB is also planning to increase its customers to four million by 2016, from 2.5 million, he said.

FCMB’s profit rose 21 per cent to N5.05bn in the three months through March from a year earlier, the company said in April.

Punch