Changes of Company Name, Delays African Expansion Plan- UBA Capital

The shareholders of UBA Capital Plc. have approved the change of name of the company to United Capital Plc.. This was agreed at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) in Lagos yesterday. But the resolution at the gathering was followed by an instruction from the Directors to put the company’s expansion across Africa on hold.

UBA Capital is listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as a separate and independent company with five operating businesses focused on asset management, investment banking, trusteeship, securities and life insurance.

An independent identity

The Board of Directors of the company requested that its name be changed as part of the strategies to mark its independence and reflect the company as a detached identity from UBA. Subsequently, stakeholders voted in support of the name change to United Capital Plc.

The financial and investment services group was initially a subsidiary of UBA Plc. It became a separate company after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s gave a directive that all banks should dissociate from non-commercial banking activities. UBA Plc. in compliance with this, transferred its 100 per cent holding in UBA Capital to the shareholders of the bank.

Mansard Insurance also changed its name as it stood a separate entity from Guarantee Trust Bank Plc. The Company’s name was changed to Guaranty Trust Assurance Limited in September 2004 following the acquisition of a majority shareholding by Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, and changed again to Guaranty Trust Assurance Plc. in March 2006

Expansion in Africa on a standstill?

According to Punch, since it gained independence from UBA Plc, its unaudited monetary statement, filed with the Nigerian Stock Exchange, it declared a profit before tax of $11.8 million for the third quarter of 2013, representing a rise of 337 percent on the $2.5 it posted for the same period in 2013.

Mrs. Oluwatoyin Sanni, the Group Chief Executive Officer stated that “2013 was a year of laying a solid foundation for the legacy we are building as Africa’s leading investment banking group.”

But despite these developments, the shareholders conceded that due to the health concerns in some parts of Africa and subject to obtaining the requisite amendments and approvals by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators, the board of directors are authorised to discontinue with business expansion across Africa

This halt can be attributed to concerns about the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. “Companies are moving away from the countries hit by Ebola, so we can’t be going there at this time,” said Boniface Okezie, the National Coordinator of the Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, a stake holder state in the company.