By PROVIDENCE OBUH

Diamond Bank Plc has explained that it has no plan for Merger and Acquisition (M&A) at the moment, but to concentrate on organic growth.

The bank further promised to excite its investors by paying dividend to them by 2012 and in the future given the remarkable performance for the first half of 2012.

Managing Director/CEO, Diamond Bank, Mr. Alex Otti  said: “The bank has struggled in the past, and given that in the last one year it has written off over N44 billion bad debts, as a result, it has not been able to pay dividend.”

To this end he said, “Assuming that it did not happen, we would have been able to pay dividend, so I can assure you that going forward, you will be able to get dividend because you can only make dividend when the bank makes money.

“Our shareholders may not have received good dividend but I do know that the first year I came here, I paid dividend no matter how small.”

He pointed out that in the first half report, it posted a profit-before-tax of over 15 billion, and sustaining the trend means the bank would have made at least N30 billion in terms of profit-before-tax and as a result, there would be something for the shareholders.

He said, “So I will encourage you not to sell your shares because there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Speaking on the bank’s plan on Merger and Acquisition option, he revealed that more than 60 per cent of Merger and Acquisition destroy shareholders’ value, stressing that the bank is careful not to do anything that does not make sense.

“Our priority is organic growth and we are already on that path, if in the process we see a Merger & Acquisition that make sense, we will look at it.”

Describing what he called organic growth, he stated that at the moment, the bank is growing organically.  “We are not unnecessarily or unduly aggressive about inorganic growth.

“We are the only bank operating a unified licence in the French zones. What that means is that with the licence we got from Benin Republic, we were able to expand to all the French-speaking West African countries without looking for another licence, so recapitalisation in the original bank in Benin Republic is what we are taking into consideration in looking at the bank for recapitalisation.”