Wema gets shareholders’ nod for capital reorganisation

Wema Bank Plc at its Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), in Lagos, last week, received the approval of its shareholders’ for the achievement of its Scheme of Capital Reorganisation.

With this approval, Wema Bank would kick off the creation of a Capital Reduction Account (CRA), the transfer of negative balances in the retained revenue account to the Capital Reduction Account (CRA), reflect the carrying amounts on the specified assets based on their current economic values, while effectively setting-off these balances against the share premium account.

As part of the next steps, Wema Bank will approach the Federal High Court for approval on the resolutions passed by the shareholders.

The approval however, is expected to be received within the next few weeks, leading to the passage of all accounting entries before the 2017 financial year end.

The exercise is expected to make shareholders, alongside the investment community, witness a more efficient balance sheet, improvements in our performance ratios, as the plough back of successive years’ profits lead to the continued growth of the Wema Brand.

In addition, the bank would also be well positioned to commence payment of dividend payments.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Segun Oloketuyi, said despite the economic conditions, the financial institution has continued to show signs of resilience, evidenced by its growing brand acceptance and increased customer patronage.

Gross earnings grew by 16.79 per cent from N37.89 billion in Q3’2016 to N45.38 billion as at Q3’2017. This was supported by increased contribution from non-interest income, which rose by 35.74 per cent from N5.96 billion in Q3’2017 to N8.09 billion, as at Q3’2017.

The high interest rate environment continued to impact earnings, as interest expense increased year on year. Despite this, the Bank recorded a growth in Profit before Tax (PBT) by 20.81 per cent to N1.80 billion. We expect that as interest rates trend downwards, our funding cost will decline, leading to improvements in our margins.

Wema Bank was recently ranked eighth position in the yearly KPMG industry customer service survey from 13th position in 2016.

This is a further attestation of our processes, product & service offerings, which has afforded us increasing market penetration. We expect a top-5 finish by 2018, and we have begun working, to achieve this feat.

The delivery on incremental innovations on ALAT remains priority to us, with the roll-out of version 2.0 this week. We believe the launch of ALAT 2.0 is a demonstration of our continued resolve to using technology and innovation – our key strategic determinants, in ensuring continued customer acquisition and reducing our cost to serve.

Customer acquisition on ALAT remains strong, with an average of 30,000 opened monthly. We remain excited, as we remain on course to achieve the set year-end target of 350,000 accounts.

As part of efforts to positioning the Bank for continued growth the Bank issued its 182–day and 270-day Commercial Paper (Program 1).

The issuance which was successful, was embarked upon to take advantage of certain opportunities within the fast-growing commercial areas.