Skye Bank Raises $150m New Capital:----???

Skye Bank Plc has raised a total of $150 million tier 11 capital as part of the measures to beef up its equity and working capital.
Group managing director, Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo, disclosed this yesterday in Lagos at the bank’s pre-annual general meeting media briefing.
According to him, the capital raising exercise was in tandem with the approval the shareholders of the bank gave to the board at the last annual general meeting.
He noted that the new capital would strengthen the bank as a solid institution pointing out that the bank would use its enhanced strength to further intervene in funding critical sectors of the economy to bring about national development.
According to him, the bank has been one of the leading financiers in key sectors of the economy including oil and gas industry, real estate development, agriculture and education among others.
He said the bank would over the next three years focus on enhancing its commercial and retail banking business to complement its hugely successful corporate banking franchise.
According to him, the bank has designed new retail banking strategies that would aid the mobilization of cheap deposit, increase lending to individuals and small and medium businesses and generally bridge the financial gap in the society.
Oguntayo put the bank’s total funding of agriculture at over N15 billion traversing cocoa processing, animal production, among others.
He however called for the revamping of the Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation to be able to guarantee agric loans in a manner that will encourage banks to fund the sector more.
Skye Bank Plc grew net profit by about 27 per cent to N16 billion in 2013 as the bank optimized constrained top-line deliver better returns to shareholders.
Key extracts of the audited report and accounts of the bank for the year ended December 31, 2013 showed that net profit rose from N12.64 billion in 2012 to N16.02 billion in 2013.
The board of directors of the bank has recommended distribution of N3.97 billion to shareholders, representing a dividend per share of 30 kobo. Earnings per share had risen to N1.21 in 2013 as against N1.01 in 2012.
The report showed a profit before tax of N17.136 billion in 2013, a modest increase on N16.510 billion recorded in 2012. Other highlights of the result include growth in total assets from N1.073 trillion to N1.116 trillion, while deposit liabilities also increased from N966 billion to N996 billion. Gross earnings stood at N127.3billion in 2013 compared with N127.73 billion in 2012.
The bank’s total equity grew during the review period from 106.8 billion in 2012 to N120 billion in 2013, indicating the bank’s financial stability. Loans and receivables also rose to N549.8 billion from N540.3 billion. As a measure of its growing good loan portfolio, the bank’s net interest income shot up to N61.69 billion from N44.5 billion in 2012, an increase of 38 per cent.