Erastus Akingbola, OON

Intercontinental Bank Plc, one of Africa’s largest banks will be paying a total dividend of N13.5billion for the 2007/2008 year. This is made up of the N6.3 billion paid to the investors as interim dividend last September and the N7.2billion, the bank is proposing to pay as final dividend payout to its shareholders this month.

This translates to 40 kobo per share compared to 35 kobo paid as interim dividend, bringing the total dividend per share for the year to 75 kobo.

The handsome dividend is the fallout from the sterling performance of the bank in its year end financial result due to be announced formally to its shareholders at the banks Annual General Meeting in Abuja at the end of this month.

The bank last week announced its financial results for the year ended February 2008 which shows a deposit base of N1.05 trillion, up by 126 per cent from N468 billion in the previous year. Total assets plus contingents rose to N1.7 trillion, up by 108 per cent from N823 billion. This has made the bank the first to hit trillion mark in deposit and also giving it number one position in total assets.

The bank also recorded a phenomenal growth in gross earnings which stood at N173.5 billion, an increase of 99 per cent over the N87.4 billion recorded in the previous year. Profit before tax grew by a whopping 102 per cent to N45.6 billion, as against N22.6 billion in 2007, while profit after tax soared by 125 per cent to N34.8billion during the period under review. The capital base also rose to N200 billion from N157 billion.

Analysts posited at the week end that the bank’s dividend payout of N13.5 billion for the year is exceptional but not surprising given the bank’s remarkable growth rate of dividend payout to shareholders over the past six years.

The bank paid N574 million as total dividend in 2001 and paid N1 billion in 2002. The bank’s dividend payout rose to N1.4 billion in 2003 climbing to N1.6 billion in 2005. Then shareholders enjoyed a sharp increment in dividend payout of N4.2 billion 2006 and N9.5 billion last year.

This is indicative of the bank’s management capacity to turn its growing share-holders funds into profitability and higher returns on investment.

With this development market watchers believe the bank’s global intent of being the number one in Nigeria, among top 500 in Africa and top 500 in the world by 2010 is realizable owing to the massive customer and investor support that the Intercontinental Bank brand is attracting in Nigeria and abroad.

Intercontinental bank recently embarked upon a strategic repositioning drive to dominate retail markets across the country, leveraging on its strong corporate finance business and massive market response to the bank’s consistent delivery on its brand promises to make customers happy with excellent banking services.

The Group Chief Executive, Dr. Erastus Akingbola said the exceptional performance of the bank in all financial indices represents a bold step in the bank’s global strategy of benchmarking the best financial institution in the international arena.

Recently, Intercontinental Bank entered into a joint venture with Blue Financial Services Company, the number one micro finance institution in Africa with 171 branches spread across ten African countries to float Blue-Intercontinental Microfinance Bank.

Analysts said the bank’s track record of superlative performance over the years puts it in good stead to achieve this target. Intercontinental Bank was ranked 355 in the world by the Financial Times of London, making it the only Nigerian Bank in the world’s top 500 banks and the second fastest growing in the world in 2007.

Dr. Akingbola said the bank is poised to surpass this record. ‘‘We are encouraged by our drive, vision and capacity to double, year on year, all the performance indicators of the bank. We intend to beat our record and we shall”, he said.

Intercontinental Bank is one of the Nigeria’s strongest brands. Its robust brand equity has been acquired over 18 years and resonates with a reputation for excellent customer service, superb financial performance and track record of exceptionally high returns on investments since inception.

The bank has evolved into one of the largest and most diversified financial services Group in Nigeria with about ten subsidiaries in all sub-sectors of the financial sector. Intercontinental Group is made up the following: Intercontinental Wapic Insurance Plc ( a leader in the insurance industry), Intercontinental Capital Markets Limited (a major player in the investment banking sub-sector), Intercontinental Homes & Savings Limited (a major player in mortgage finance sub-sector), and Intercontinental Properties Limited which is into real estate. It also has EBN Securities Limited and Intercontinental Finance and Investment Limited all involved in stock market business. Others are Intercontinental Trustees Limited, Intercontinental Registrars Limited and a majority stake in Associated Discount House Limited, a major operator in the top-tier money market.

Outside Nigeria the Group operates as Intercontinental Bank Ghana Limited. Intercontinental Bank (UK) Limited is set to start operation by next month.

It also boasts one of the largest branch network spread across the country, linked by cutting-edge IT infrastructure. Currently, it has over 300 branches nation-wide.

Intercontinental Bank has the most stable board of directors in the industry with all the founding members of the board still on the board today.