By TAIYE OLAYEMI

Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO) has increased its investment in Guaranty Trust Bank Ltd (GTBank) to N504 billion.

The bank disclosed this in a statement on Thursday in Lagos.

The increase followed its subscription to GTBank?s rights issue of 6,994,050,290 ordinary shares at 50 kobo each, valued at N365.85 billion.

With this injection, GTBank?s paid-up share capital rose from N138.19 billion to N504.04 billion.

The statement reads, ?Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc has announced that it has increased its investment in its wholly owned Banking subsidiary, Guaranty Trust Bank Limited (?GTBank?) to N504 billion.

?This is through a rights issue subscription for 6,994,050,290 ordinary shares of fifty kobo each made by GTBank for a total consideration of N365,850,403,572.67.

?This is increasing GTBank?s paid-up share capital from N138,186,703,485.78 to N504,037,107,058.45.?

The bank said the capital injection ensured GTBank?s compliance with the new minimum capital requirement for commercial banks with international authorisation stipulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The capital injection was funded by the two-phased equity capital raising programme recently undertaken and concluded by GTCO Plc.

This is with an international fully marketed offering on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) that secured 105 million dollars from high-quality, long-term institutional investors in exchange for 2.29 billion new ordinary shares.

This is making GTCO Plc the first financial services institution in West Africa to dual list on both the NGX and LSE.

Launched in July 2024, GTCO?s equity capital programme began with a public offering to Nigerians that raised N209.41 billion from 130,617 valid applications for 4.7 billion ordinary shares.

This was fully allotted and evenly split between retail and institutional investors.

The bank further said that the additional equity capital would be deployed by GTBank primarily for branch network expansion and asset growth (loans, advances, and investment securities portfolio).

It noted that it would also fortificate its information technology infrastructure and leverage emerging opportunities in Nigeria and the operating environments where it maintains banking presence.

Following the capital injection, the company continues to hold 100 per cent of the entire issued and paid-up share capital of the bank.

The bank added that none of the directors of the company had any interest, direct or indirect, in the bank.

Commenting on the recapitalisation of Guaranty Trust Bank Ltd., Mr. Segun Agbaje, Group Chief Executive Officer of GTCO Plc, said, ?The successful recapitalisation of our flagship banking subsidiary, Guaranty Trust Bank Limited, marks a pivotal step in strengthening the foundation of our group.

?With significant new capital secured and the CBN?s recapitalisation directive for Guaranty Trust Bank now fulfilled, we are focused on deepening innovation and service excellence, delivering improved performance, and expanding our footprint across high-growth markets, while upholding the industry-leading standards that define the GTCO brand.? (NAN)

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