GRTB.L Regulatory News (GRTB)

14 Mar 2008 12:31

Guaranty Trust Bank PLC14 March 2008 Guaranty Trust Bank plc UK subsidiary granted FSA approval Guaranty Trust Bank plc, ("GTBank"), one of Nigeria's leading banks, announcedtoday that its United Kingdom subsidiary, GTB UK Ltd ("GTB UK"), has beenauthorised by the UK's Financial Services Authority to operate as a bank in theUK. The subsidiary is based in Margaret Street in Central London and marks theGroup's first operation in Europe. It will focus on quality business where thereare already established links between Nigeria and the other countries whereGTBank operates, including Gambia and Sierra Leone, and the UK. The subsidiarywill provide banking services such as receiving deposits, and writing mortgagesfor both commercial and retail customers as well as intermediates. Tayo Aderinokun, Managing Director of the GTBank, commented: "We are verypleased to be making our first step into Europe with the opening of GTB UK. Weare confident many of our clients will welcome the opportunity to bank with usin London, and we are excited about developing further business relationshipsthrough our UK subsidiary." 14 March 2007 Enquiries: GTBank Lola Odedina, Head, Communications & External Affairs +234-1-2715227Pascal Or +234-1-2715227 College Hill Richard Pearson 020 7457 2020Tony Friend 020 7457 2020 Notes to editors The Group operates as one of the leading Nigerian banks offering a wide range offinancial services and products throughout Nigeria and in the West Africansub-region. According to the most recently published audited financialstatements of Nigerian banks prepared in accordance with Nigerian GAAP, amongTier 1 banks in Nigeria as identified by Agusto & Co., the Bank is the mostprofitable bank measured in terms of return on assets, the most efficient bankmeasured in terms of cost to income, has the second best asset quality measuredin terms of non-performing loan ratio and, (among all banks in Nigeria, theBank) is the sixth largest bank in terms of total assets. Historically, the Group has focused its business on large- and medium-sizecorporate clients. However, the economic reforms that followed Nigeria's returnto democracy in 1999 led to an increase in liquidity of retail customers and acorresponding increase in demand by such customers for banking services. As aconsequence, since 2005, the Group has placed an increasing emphasis on buildingits retail business. Initially the Group targeted only high-end retail customersthat were employed by large, reputable companies. Recently, the Group hasre-branded itself to emphasise its retail focus, in particular its evolution asa bank with a nationwide network and focus on the provision of banking servicesto nearly all segments of the Nigerian economy. The Bank has three banking subsidiaries established outside of Nigeria -Guaranty Trust Bank (Gambia) Ltd ("GTB Gambia"), Guaranty Trust Bank (SierraLeone) Ltd. ("GTB Sierra Leone") and Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) Limited ("GTBGhana"). The Bank services its customers from 120 branches in Nigeria, as wellas other branches of its subsidiaries throughout the region. The Bank has fournon-banking subsidiaries: Guaranty Trust Assurance Plc ("GTB Assurance"), whichprovides insurance services in Nigeria, GTB Registrars Limited ("GTB Registrars"), a securities registrar, GTHomes Limited ("GTHomes"), which provides mortgageservices and GTB Finance B.V. ("GTB Finance"), a finance subsidiary located inThe Netherlands. In each of the past three years, profit from the Bank accountedfor over 90.0% of the Group's total income. At Financial Half Year ending August 2007 GTBank reported a 67.6%year-on-year(yoy) increase in net earnings to NGN22.2bn (US$187m). GTBank's gross loans grew58% yoy on NGN114bn (US$959m). At HYE07 approximately 93% of gross loans wereattributable to wholesale clients with the balance of 7% attributable to retailclients. In July 2007 GTBank became the first Nigerian company and African bankto be listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, successfullyraising USD788.7m. www.gtbank.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange