BY RONALD NJOROGE
NAIROBI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) – Shareholders of CfC Stanbic Holdings, a member of the Standard Bank Group have approved a Rights Issue at an extraordinary general meeting which was held in Nairobi on Monday. Shareholders of the financial services group of companies also voted to raise the firm’s authorized share capital from 16.3 million U.S. dollars to 28.3 million dollars.
The authorised share capital of 16.3 million dollars is divided into four hundred and 473,684,211 ordinary shares of 0.59 dollars each by the creation of 200,000,000 new ordinary shares of 0.59 dollars each. “We are very pleased that our shareholders have approved the Rights Issue which can now proceed in accordance with the Capital Markets Authority and the Nairobi Securities Exchange regulations, ” CfC Stanbic Holdings Chairman Fred Ojiambo said.
“We regard this resolution as a demonstration of confidence by our shareholders in the strategic course that we set for the Group. ” Effectively, the move paves way for the Board to make formal applications to the Capital Markets Authority and the Nairobi Securities Exchange for the Rights Issue which is targeted for the second quarter of 2012.
Managing Director of CfC Stanbic Holdings, Kitili Mbathi said the Rights Issue would strengthen the Group’s capital position, and support the continued growth of the business in the future. “In the past few years we have laid a strong foundation for the Group’s future and as the impressive results as at Sept.30 demonstrate, we have been successful in implementing our strategy, ” Mr Mbathi said. “We believe that there are great opportunities for growth and it is critical that we have sufficient capital to take advantage of these opportunities.”
At the Extraordinary General Meeting, shareholders also approved the amendment of the Articles of Association to reflect the new capital structure. CfC Stanbic Holdings Limited is the holding company of the following operating entities, namely CfC Stanbic Bank Limited, CfC Life Assurance Limited, the Heritage Insurance Company Limited and CfC Stanbic Financial Services Limited. (Xinhua)
