Jaiz Bank Plc, Nigeria’s first non-interest commercial bank, has secured the approval of the council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to list its entire issued share capital on the Exchange.
A regulatory approval obtained at the weekend indicated that the Quotation Committee, which oversees listing at the Exchange, has approved application for the listing of the shares of Jaiz Bank on the NSE.
Jaiz Bank will be listing a total of 29.46 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N1.25, indicating a start-off market capitalisation of N36.83 billion. Finmal Finance Services Limited and Kundila Finance Services Limited and Inverness Wealth Management Limited, three investment firms, were said to be working with the board of jaiz Bank to facilitate the listing.
The listing will be done by way of introduction, implying that Jaiz Bank’s shares will be available initially through the secondary market, though the non-interest bank has already indicated interest in raising funds through initial public offering (IPO). Jaiz Bank plans to increase its current share capital base from N15 billion to N25 billion.
Although the details of the listing schedule are still sketchy, Jaiz Bank, which is already listed on the NASD OTC Plc, may set record as the first company to migrate from the NASD OTC to the NSE The NASD OTC is the over-the-counter trading platform for unlisted public limited liability companies.
Shareholders of Jaiz Bank had in October 2016 approved the listing of the bank on the NSE. The shareholders, at an extraordinary general meeting, also approved the sub-division of the bank’s nominal value from N1 to 50 kobo, thus multiplying the authorised share capital of 15 billion ordinary shares of N1 each to 30 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each.
Jaiz Bank Plc declared a profit before tax of N794.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2015 as against N126.8 million in 2014. The bank grew its finance income by 47 per cent to N4 billion as against N2.72 billion in previous year. Total Asset stood at N52.6 billion by December 2015 compared with N44.4 billion in 2014. Customer deposit base closed 2015 at N38.7 billion, with current account and customers’ investment account deposits showing strong growth of 43 per cent and 39 per cent to N15.5 billion and N23.2 billion respectively.
The bank recently obtained a national operating license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which will enable it to spread across all the 36 states of the Federation.
Jaiz Bank was created out of the former Jaiz International Plc which was set up in 2003-2004 as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to establish Nigeria’s first full-fledged non-interest bank. it is owned by more than 20,000 shareholders including the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).
It had obtained a regional operating license to operate as a non-interest bank from the CBN on November 11, 2011 and began full operations as the first non-interest bank in Nigeria on January 6, 2012 with three branches located in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja; Kaduna and Kano. The Regional License allows the Bank to operate geographically in a third of the country.
Based on recommendations of IDB, Jaiz Bank had entered into a strategic partnership with Islami Bank Bangladesh (IBBL) for the IBBL to provide technical management to run the bank.