TRUSTBond Mortgage Bank Plc, one of the recapitalised national primary mortgage institutions, PMIs in the country, has assured its shareholders of uninterrupted operations in its real estate activities.

The PMI said its has sown the strategic ‘seeds’ for the growth of its core operations which are banking and mortgage, by securing access to long-term funding from the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company, NMRC. The firm said it has taken up a respectable equity stake in the refinance company as an equity investment.

Giving this assurance at the company’s 5th Annual General Meeting, AGM in Lagos last week, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, CEO of the mortgage bank, Mr. Adeniyi Akinlusi, said “access to long-term funding is a sine-qua-non for successful mortgage banking operations”.

“We shall therefore seek to complement funding from NMRC with other sources of funds to continue to grow our core mortgage banking business,” he said.

Thanking the shareholders for their faith in the bank, and customers for their loyalty as well as the management and staff for their relentless efforts to make the bank one of the foremost brands in the Nigerian mortgage banking industry, Akinlusi stated that without them, the company has no business.

Akinlusi noted that the year 20 13 marked the end of the company’s ‘transition’ period which began in 2009, with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s intervention in its erstwhile parent bank, Intercontinental Bank Plc (now Access Bank Plc). He explained that the year also marked the beginning of laying a stronger foundation for future growth of the company as well as the first full year of operations post IFRS conversion.

“Some key strategic decisions were taken and successfully implemented which include disposal of major real estate assets in line with the new CBN guidelines, winding down of real estate activities with the new operational guidelines, relocation of the head office and commencement of operations from our own premises at Lekki Scheme 1. Others are successful capital raise of N313.5 million under the special placement exercise by the bank, achievement of the N5 billion new minimum regulatory capital required to continue to operate as a national mortgage bank and securing of regulatory approval to invest N500 million as equity in the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company”.

Most of the shareholders who spoke at the AGM commended the management of bank for its future outlook, with particularly reference to upgrading the bank to national level, and efforts being made by the management to remain sustained and vibrant in the industry.

The shareholders who were not given dividends because of the N5 billion recapitalisation of the bank, however implored the bank to strive hard in terms of business transactions to ensure that they earn dividends in the next AGM of the company.

One of the shareholders suggested that rather than embarking on high profile residential housing schemes that will take time to sell, the company should consider construction of low income housing that will not be tied down in the market, as that is the only way capital of the bank will not be tied down.