FBN Holdings’ Shareholders Approve N150bn Rights Issue

The shareholders of FBN Holdings (FBNH) Plc, have approved a capital raise of N150 billion through rights issue.

They gave the approval at the 11th Annual General Meeting of the Holding Company held yesterday.

Also, the shareholders approved the appointment of Lagos businessman, Mr Femi Otedola as a non-executive director of the Group.

Speaking to shareholders, group chairman, FBN Holdings, Alhaji Ahmad Abdullahi said, the Group continued to push through difficult and economically challenging times, working with the board and management teams across its subsidiaries to deliver strong topline revenues at year-end 2022.

He noted that, “at FBNH, technology and innovation are at the core of what we do. We recognise the competitive advantage innovation affords us and ensure it takes the front seat in the design, development and enhancement of our products and services.

“We are intentional in our approach to disruptive innovation and explore new boundaries in our quest for market leadership. At the heart of our digital transformation journey is our Digital Innovation Lab, an innovation hub, which, in collaboration with the Strategic Business Units, reimagines, redesigns and delivers new products, as well as product upgrades that ensure we are agile and adaptable in our fast-paced business environment with ever-changing customer needs.”

Abdullahi stated that, “our largest franchise, FirstBank, remains a major player in the digital banking space, controlling a significant domestic market share in e-banking-related transactions.”

Also, group managing director of FBN Holdings, Nnamdi Okonkwo said, despite the various levels of economic disruptions in 2022, FBNH maintained its growth trajectory, focusing on critical business elements that ensured sustainable returns are delivered to its shareholders.

He explained that FBNH delivered another strong performance in 2022, building on the successes recorded in the prior year, saying, revenues remained strong at N805.1 billion, up by N48 billion.

Okonkwo added that “as we progress into the year, we will remain nimble in our service delivery approach, noting that transaction velocity and business complexity are in constant flux within the evolving financial services landscape.

“To better position the Group to take full advantage of opportunities in the new year, we will be guided by enhancing revenue and profitability generation by activating ‘next-gen’ capabilities to jumpstart the next digital financial services growth phase and broaden our non-funded revenue base.

“We will continue to revamp our digital product development and delivery models to support our customer acquisition drive; enhancing our value proposition by leveraging the strength of our unique business Group to enhance customer experience; and optimising operational efficiency by eliminating operational duplications, promoting process automation and leveraging Group scale.”