By Amaka Ifeakandu
Lagos
FCMB Group Plc has entered an agreement with other shareholders of Legacy Pension Managers Limited (“Legacy”), for the acquisition of an additional 60 per cent stake.
In a notification letter to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), signed by the Group Chief Executive Officer of the FCMB Group, Ladi Balogun said the proposed acquisition would increase FCMB’s interest in Legacy to 88.2 per cent, thus making Legacy a subsidiary of FCMB.
According to the bank, the proposed transaction is subject to the approvals of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the National Pension Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The management FCMB group said it would notify the NSE once the relevant approvals for the transaction are received.
FCMB Group Plc’s started in 1977, with the formation of City Securities Limited (CSL), a stockbroking and issuing house and registrar business. The First City Merchant Bank Limited was established in 1982 with seed capital from the success of CSL and began operations as a licensed deposit taker and merchant bank on 1983. But with the advent of universal banking in 2001, First City Merchant Bank Limited converted into a universal bank and changed its name to First City Monument Bank Limited and commenced commercial banking activities, while its corporate finance activities were spun-off into a new subsidiary – FCMB Capital Markets Limited.
In 2004, the bank was listed on the NSE in December of that year. In 2010, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued Regulation 3 (Scope of Banking Activities and Ancillary Matters, No. 3, 2010), which required banks to divest their non-banking businesses or retain them under a CBN-approved financial group structure. As a result of this re-organisation, the newly created FCMB Group Plc became the holding company, with First City Monument Bank Limited, CSL Stockbrokers Limited (CSLS) and FCMB Capital Markets Limited (FCMB-CM) as direct subsidiaries.
Legacy Pension Managers Limited on the other hand was licensed by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), to carry on business as a Pension Fund Administrator (PFA).
