Guaranty Trust Bank has been named among four banks shortlisted as finalists for the African Banker magazine’s 2014 African Banker Awards.
The finalists in the 8th edition of the competition include GTBank of Nigeria, BMCE Bank and Attijariwafa Bank of Morocco, Standard Bank and Nedbank Bank of South Africa.
The Managing Directors of two Nigerian banks, the Group Managing Director/CEO, First Bank of Nigeria, Bisi Onasanya, and his GTBank counterpart, Segun Agbaje, were also shortlisted finalists for the African Banker of the Year award.
The Nigerian bank chiefs were shortlisted in the same category as the MD/CEO, Standard Chartered Bank of South Africa, Bola Adesola; MD/CEO CRDB Bank of Tanzania, Charles Kimei; MD/CEO, Banco Unico of Mozambique, Joao Figueiredo; CEO, Standard Bank of Angola, Pedro Pinto Coelho; and the Director General, East African Development Bank of Uganda, Vivienne Yeda.
In the Investment Bank of the Year award category, FBN Capital and Vetiva, both from Nigeria, were shortlisted along with EFG Hermes of Egypt; Citi Group and Rand Merchant Bank, both of South Africa.
Again, First Bank of Nigeria was shortlisted among the finalists for the award for Innovation in Banking, which also included Banco Unico of Mozambique, Banque Centrale Populaire of Morocco, Citi bank of USA and Nedbank of South Africa.
Fidelity Bank and GTBank of Nigeria were both shortlisted for Socially Responsible Bank of the Year award, which included Barclays Africa Group, Investec Asset Management bank and Nedbank, all of South Africa
GTBank and United Bank for Africa were the only Nigerian banks shortlisted for the award of Best Retail Bank in Africa. Others include Banque Centrale Populaire of Morocco; Nedbank of South Africa and State Bank of Mauritius
Diamond Bank was the only Nigerian bank shortlisted for the award for Financial Inclusion, along with ACSI of Ethiopia, Barclays of Uganda, MasterCard of the United Arab Emirate, UAE and Trust Merchant Bank of DR Congo
Oando Plc $341 million rights issue on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE and Johannesburg Stock Exchange, JSE Limited through Vetiva, Nigeria and Project Desert KERL by FBN Capital of Nigeria were shortlisted along with four others for the Deal of the Year – Equity award.
Others were “Fidelity Bank”, Amethis Finance of France; “OCI N.V’s US$10.5billion acquisition offer” by Barclays Bank of Egypt; “Atlas Mara Co-Nvest US$325m IPO” by Citigroup Global Markets of the UK and the “AECI sale of property assets to Shanghai Zendai” by Standard Bank of South Africa.
“Roll-out of Africa’s largest petroleum oil refinery and petrochemical/fertilizer plant by Dangote Group” through the Standard Chartered Bank of UK led the shortlisted finalists for the “Deal of the Year – Debt award.
Others included “Republic of South Africa – $2billion 5.875 per cent Eurobond due by 2025″; Standard Bank and RMB, UK; “Implats Dual Currency Convertible Bond”, Standard Bank, South Africa”; $500m financing facility to Government of Senegal” by Banque Centrale Populaire, Morocco and “Avon and Dedisa peaking power transactions” by Nedbank Capital of South Africa.
The final winners would be announced at the awards ceremony and gala dinner scheduled for May 21, 2014 in Kigali, Rwanda, during the forthcoming African Development Bank annual meetings.
The Group Publisher of African Banker magazine and head of the African Banker Awards Committee, Omar Yedder, noted the entries in the ‘Deal of the Year’ (“Equity”/”Debt”), describing them as competitive and encouraging.
“It has been encouraging and fascinating to read the entries in the deal of the year categories, which are the most competitive of the lot. The transactions are encouraging because of their level of sophistication,” Mr. Yedder said.
He said the deals highlighted the amount of activity now taking place throughout the continent, some of which were transformative, particularly what is happening in the power sector.
Another encouraging aspect of the deal, Mr. Yedder said, was that several of those deals were being financed and structured by local African banks in conjunction with their global partners.
The African Banker Award is organised by African Banker magazine and Business in Africa Events.