In a rather interesting twist in events Citi Business News has gathered that Republic bank has put on hold moves to takeover HFC bank.
Republic Bank last week announced that it will make an offer to all shareholders of HFC Bank to increase its investment in the bank.
But the move was met with some opposition from some shareholders of the bank including the managing director of the bank Asare Akuffo.
However after a meeting yesterday both parties agreed to put the share sale on hold.
Sources familiar with the matter say Republic bank after meeting with management of HFC agreed to put on hold the takeover for a couple of weeks.
It’s unclear whether the move will have any immediate implications since the takeover bid was a requirement per the rules.
Republic Bank’s takeover bid was in line with the Security and Exchanges Commission (SEC) Code on Takeovers and Mergers which requires that a shareholder in a listed company whose shareholding reaches over 30% make an offer to remaining shareholders.
However the couple of weeks are expected to be used to iron differences between HFC bank and Republic bank over the matter.
Meanwhile Citi Business News has gathered state pension fund manager SSNIT and the regulator of the cocoa industry COCOBOD are likely to sell their shares in the bank should Republic bank succeed in its bid.
SSNIT currently owns about 26 percent of shares in the bank while COCOBOD has 5.57 percent.
Republic bank is offering 1 cedi 30 peswes per share.
Shares of COCOBOD and SSNIT will fetch the two institutions over 40 million dollars.
Sources familiar with the matter also tell Citi Business News that the founding Managing Director of HFC bank Stephanie Baeta-Ansah may also sell her shares in the bank while the fourth largest shareholder Kwame Addo who owns 6.42 percent shares in the bank may increase his shares.
By: Vivian Kai Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana