Cocobod, Ghana’s regulator for the cocoa industry has pulled out of HFC bank.
[contextly_sidebar id=”WTBEo9Hk6A4Vh3BwURanJDz0h9OYYJGg”]Cocobod was one of four large institutional shareholders of HFC bank.
The others are Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Ghana Union Assurance company and SIC.
Cocobod stake
Prior to Cocobod’s pullout it owned about 5.57 percent stake in the bank.
But it sold its shares during Republic bank’s mandatory takeover offer period to shareholders of the bank.
Cocobod’s 5.6 percent stake accumulated to about 16 million shares in the bank.
Cash Cocobod will accrue due to sale
Republic bank is expected to pay Cocobod about 32.4 million cedis from the sale.
Republic bank paid 1 cedi 95 peswes per share to shareholders of HFC during the offer period.
Sources familiar with the sale of the shares say Republic bank is likely to dish out at least 115 million cedis in total to shareholders who sold their shares.
Republic bank last week secured more than enough shares to gain controlling interest in local bank HFC.
New composition
Republic bank was seeking to gain at least 51 percent stake in HFC bank.
However Citi Business News has learnt Republic bank now owns about 57 percent stake in HFC bank.
Per the sale Republic bank now has 57.1 percent stake, SSNIT about 26 percent, Ghana Union Assurance company about 10 percent, SIC 3.1 percent with about 3 percent belonging to individual shareholders.
Republic bank was forced to make a mandatory offer to shareholders of the bank in line with the country’s code on takeovers and mergers after it gained over 31 percent stake in the bank.
The offer ended on May 8th, 2015.
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By: Vivian Kai Lokko/citifmonline.com/Ghana