Barclays Africa has hinted of a possible merger with other banks operating in Ghana’s banking sector.
According to Barclays, the decision will however be limited to banks whose operations fit into the strategy of the Bank.
Some banking analysts have bemoaned the difficulty of most banks in Ghana to offer huge loans due to limited capital base.
They have therefore suggested mergers between large, well established banks and relatively smaller ones to increase their capital base to facilitate huge syndicated loans for large deals.
Though the Deputy Group CEO of Barclays Africa, David Hodnett agrees on the need for such agreements, speaking in an exclusive interview with the Head of Citi Business News desk, Vivian Kai Lokko, he insisted that a merger will only be considered if it is appropriate for the bank’s strategies.
“Barclays Ghana has its own capital base which in a vast majority of times is sufficient to deal with what they need to do in the country. But one of the issues across Africa is the size of the deals -big oil and gas deals and often these deals are such a size which is difficult for an individual operation to do. The fantastic thing about Barclays Africa group is that we have a broader balance sheet. So if Ghana is unable to do specifically, we have got a balance sheet that we can book against.” The Deputy Barclays Africa CEO stated.
David Hodnett added, “If the opportunity for consolidation comes up, I think we are a very stable and very strong bank; we will always look at that kind of opportunities. If it is appropriate for our strategy we will but we do not need it to do the deals we can do all the deals already.”
Barclays Plc has announced plans to exit its Africa operations. Barclays Plc at present owns about 60 percent stake in the bank’s Africa operations.
Though some have speculated that the exit will affect the Barclays’ Africa operations, the CEO of Barclays Africa, Mario Ramos maintains the development will not affect the operations of the bank in Africa.
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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana