uniBank acquires ADB in 600 million cedis deal

Shareholders of the Agricultural Development Bank have pledged over 51% shares to uniBank for 600 million Ghana Cedis.

A consortium of financial institutions which comprises Starmount Development Company Limited; EDC Investment Limited and SCI-FSL hitherto owned the over 51% shares of the ADB.

Speaking on 3FM’s Sunrise morning show, Executive Director of uniBank Clifford Duke Mettle confirmed that his bank and a financial consortium Belstar Capital reached the agreement after several meetings which concluded in uniBank parting with some 600 million cedis for the acquisition of ADB.

“The consortium which was led by Belstar Capital with institutions which have controlling interest in ADB which is more than 51% and that is what has been assigned to uniBank, and we are looking at something in the region of about 600million Ghana cedis plus,” Mr. Duke Mettle said on 3FM 92.7.

With this acquisition, uniBank gets access to shares, proceeds, voting rights, and entitlement to the Agricultural Development Bank.

According to Mr. Duke Mettle, despite the take-over, ADB will still be run under its original agenda with little or no interference by uniBank.

“ADB will still pursue their agenda as a bank, and uniBank will also continue its SME focused agenda as a bank. The name and management will not change, everything remains the same except the controlling rights that come to uniBank,” he said.

While it is uncertain what contributed to the takeover by uniBank, ADB recorded losses of some 78 million cedis in 2015 and 70 million in 2016.

Both banks are yet to confirm if the losses recorded in the past played any role in recent developments leading to the transfer of shares to UniBank.