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14 | The Lion King
UBA Adopts
Monoline
Commercial Banking
Structure
By Paschal Nwigwe & Abdul imoyo
U
nited Bank for Africa Plc
has adopted a mono-
line commercial banking
structure after concluding the
spin-off of its non-commercial
banking businesses; UBA Capital
Plc, Africa Prudential Registrars
Plc and Afriland Properties Plc to
existing shareholders.
UBA Capital holds all the non-
commercial banking businesses
of the group with the exception
of Africa Prudential Registrars Plc
and Afriland Properties Plc which
are held directly by shareholders.
Its businesses include:
• UBA Capital Limited
• UBA Trustees Limited
• UBA Asset Management
Limited
• UBA Stockbrokers Limited and,
• UBA Metropolitan Life
Insurance Limited as a joint
venture
The monoline structure is in
compliance with Central Bank
of Nigeria’s Guidelines on
Regulation of Banking Activities
and Ancillary Matters released in
November 2010 which repealed
the universal banking model and
presented two options under
which banks can operate. These
options are to:
• Continue purely as a commer-
cial bank; by divesting from
all non-commercial banking
businesses; or
• Evolve into a holding
company (Holdco) model
with the commercial bank
ring-fenced from all other
non-commercial banking
activities (All commercial
banking activities whether
offshore or onshore must
come under the commercial
banking subsidiary).
The Bank had earlier proposed
a Holdco Structure which was
approved by shareholders at a
Court Ordered Meeting held on
December 29, 2011. However,
this was invalidated by a Central
Bank of Nigeria circular released
on December 30, 2011, which
required all commercial banking
subsidiaries to be under a com-
mercial banking parent in this
case, UBA Plc. The earlier Holdco
structure had UBA’s interest in
African commercial banking
subsidiaries consolidated under
a separate intermediate Holding
company and was therefore not
consistent with this circular.
The new monoline business struc-
ture and the related re-organ-
ization of capital as contained
in a Scheme of Arrangement
dated November 15, 2012 was
approved by the Shareholders
of the Bank at a court-ordered
meeting held on December 13,
2012.
The Scheme of Arrangement
entitles every shareholder
whose name appeared on the
register of members of UBA Plc on
December 31, 2012 to 4 shares of
UBA Capital Plc, 1 share of Africa
Prudential Registrars and 1 share
of Afriland Properties Plc for
every 33 shares held in UBA Plc.
Shareholders who have Central
Securities Clearing System’s
(CSCS) accounts were credited
with the shares of the spun-off
entities on January 10, 2013 while
physical share certificates were
dispatched to non account hold-
ers on the same date. This was
preparatory to the listing of the
shares of UBA Capital Plc and
Africa Prudential Registrars Plc
on The Nigerian Stock Exchange
on January 11, 2013. Afriland
Properties will be listed at a fu-
ture date.
On another note, Rasheed
Olaoluwa has been appointed
the Group CEO of UBA Capital
Plc while Peter Ashade and
Uzo Oshogwe will continue in
their roles as the CEOs of Africa
Prudential Registrars Plc and
Afriland Properties Plc.
Rasheed Olaoluwa has played
various key roles within UBA
such as Director, Strategy and
Business Transformation; Director,
Corporate and Investment Bank;
and CEO, UBA Africa, where
he spearheaded UBA’s expan-
sion into 18 African countries.
Prior to this new role, he was the
Executive Director in charge of
the commercial banking business