Diamond Bank appoints chair

Diamond Bank Plc yesterday named Mr. Dele Babade as its acting chairman. He succeeds Mr. Oluseyi Bickersteth, who recently resigned as a director and chairman of the bank.

In a statement signed by the bank’s Company Secretary and Legal Adviser, Uzoma Uja, the bank indicated that Babade’s appointment took effect on December 24, 2018.

The acting chairman was first nominated by First Carlyle Growth V (Carlyle) and his appointment as a non-executive director was approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with effect from April 20, 2017. Carlyle is one of the major shareholders in the bank.

Babade’s mandate is to oversee the business combination between Access bank and Diamond Bank Plc. The transaction is projected to be completed in the first half of next year and will see Access Bank as the post-merger bank.

Last month, Bickersteth and three non-executive directors resigned their positions. The development, analysts and banking sources said, was to pave the way for new capital injections and the new investors to have more feelings about the banking operations.

Diamond Bank is merging with Access Bank, in a move that pointed towards outright acquisition by Nigeria’s tier-I bank. The deal projected to be completed in the first half of 2019 will see Access bank as Nigeria’s largest financial installation.

Carlyle, the United States (U.S.) private equity firm declined comment when Business Insider sub-Saharan Africa contacted the group on the Access-Diamond Bank deal.

The Memorandum of Agreement and announcement of headline terms valued Diamond Bank at approximately NGN72.5 billion, about $200 million. The business combination will see Diamond Bank shareholders receiving N3.13 per share in cash and shares.

The bank’s shareholders will receive a consideration comprising of N1.00 per share in cash and the allotment of two new Access Bank ordinary shares for every seven Diamond Bank ordinary shares held as at the implementation date.

The business combination is expected to form a leading Tier 1 Nigerian bank and the largest bank in Africa by number of customers, spanning three continents, 12 countries and 29 million clients.

It will brings together treasury, risk management and corporate banking expertise with strong retail and digital banking capabilities to create a financial institution operating across the full suite of products for all customer segments.