Business

April 21, 2011

Oceanic Bank shares fall as First Bank talks end

Oceanic Bank  International Plc bailed out by the CBN in 2009, fell the most in a week after saying recapitalization talks between it and First Bank of Nigeria Plc had ended.

The stock lost 10 kobo, or the maximum 5 percent daily limit, to N1.90 by 2:02 p.m. in Lagos, its biggest intraday decline since April 12.

Both sides decided to discontinue the talks because they were unable to agree on the terms of the consideration, they said in an e-mailed statement today. Oceanic said it is “working at concluding other recapitalization plans and details of such will be unveiled in the next couple of weeks,” according to the statement.

A debt crisis arising from loans to speculators on the local stock market and operators in the oil and gas industry threatened the banking industry with collapse, prompting the Central Bank of Nigeria to use N620 billion ($4 billion) to bail out some lenders in 2009, and fired the chief executives of eight of the lenders.

The central bank set up the Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria to buy bad debts from the lenders and recapitalize the bailed-out banks, before matching them with potential investors.

First Bank ended the talks to purse an “organic growth,” Group Managing Director Bisi Onasanya said in an interview with Johannesburg-based CNBC Africa television yesterday.

“We had always been clear from the beginning that we would only do a deal that would bring value to our shareholders,” Onasanya said.

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