Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, on Tuesday, July 13, marked the listing of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc’s shares with a Closing Gong Ceremony on the main floor of the exchange.
This comes with the completion of all regulatory requirements for the corporate reorganization of the leading financial institution into a holding company structure and the listing of GTCO Plc, on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited and the London Stock Exchange, replacing Guaranty Trust Bank Plc.
Oriental News Nigeria reports that the Guaranty Trust was first listed on the Nigerian Exchange in 1997, winning the “Nigerian Stock Exchange President’s Merit Award” within months of its listing.
In 2007, it became the first Nigerian bank to list on London Stock Exchange, the first to dual list on an international exchange and the first Nigerian company to raise international capital using listed Global Depositary Receipts.
Since then, Guaranty Trust has embarked on a decade of unparalleled growth with total assets and shareholders’ funds closing at ₦4.993trillion and ₦837.2billion respectively, at the end of Q1, 2021.
As part of its long-term growth strategy, Guaranty Trust has now adopted a holding company structure wherein GTCO Plc will operate as the parent company of all Guaranty Trust banking businesses across Africa and the United Kingdom as well as other non-banking businesses which will be established following the transition.
Segun Agbaje, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust, commented: “These are very exciting times for us. Following our transition, we can now compete more effectively with non-banks in this new and evolving competitive landscape, whilst creating more value for customers and shareholders than we ever could as a bank.
Although we are delighted to have completed this rigorous transition process, we know that the hard work has just begun. We are in the final phase of building a new payments business that will deepen and extend digital financial services across Africa. We also believe that we are in a better position to drive an Asset Management business and a Pension Fund business, given our strong retail base and digital-first approach to financial services, which we have honed over the past decade.”
Founded in 1990, Guaranty Trust has maintained an unbroken streak of year-on-year growth and a consistent lead in driving the digitization of financial services in Africa.
It is the best managed financial institution in Nigeria, leading the industry across key financial indices, such as Return on Equity (ROAE of 26.0% in Q1 2021), Return on Assets (ROAA of 4.3% in Q1 2021), and Cost to Income ratio (42.6% in Q1 2021).