Investors and shareholders of Access Bank and Diamond Plc have been assured of high-quality merger of the two banks.
At the court ordered meeting of the banks recently in Lagos, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe, said the merger was about bringing together his bank’s complementary retail and corporate banking capabilities to create one of Nigeria’s leading Tier banks.
According to him, “this accelerates our strategy of becoming a leading bank in Nigeria and Africa’s gateway to the World. This combination will create the largest retail bank in Africa by customer base and a very significant player in the Nigerian market–thereby creating more opportunities for our customers, colleagues and shareholders.”
He said, “I’m delighted that the shareholders of both companies share our vision and have supported this merger. 99.98per cent of Diamond Bank shareholders voted in support of the merger, while for Access bank, 97.89percent of the shareholders representing 14.3 billion of the total shares of 14.6 billion) voted for merger also.”
The Access Bank boss explained that the two lenders awaiting final approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Security and Exchange Commission to finalise the deal and to complete the merging process which the shareholders have approved.
Responding, the shareholders however called on the management of the two banks to ensure that the post-merger integration for Access-Diamond Bank is seamless and the issues of legacy loans are addressed, adding that the banks should focus on achieving a consistent return on investments and dividend
payments.
In an interactive session in January, Wigwe said the merger will retain some brand and products of Diamond Bank, and that the powerhouse created from the deal will work to make both brands great and ensure customers of Diamond Bank enjoy seamless
banking.
