|By TAP Staff| Qatar National Bank announced the acquisition of an additional holding of 11 percent shares in pan-African bank Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (Ecobank). The cost of the additional holding is equivalent to $283 million.
QNB Group’s total stake in Ecobank is now 23.5 percent. This enables QNB Group to become the largest shareholder whilst strengthening the partnership with Ecobank, a leading pan-African bank and is a fundamental step towards QNB’s strategy of being a MEA Icon by 2017.
The acquisition was funded through existing resources and QNB will account for Ecobank as an associate in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards. QNB Capital and Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisors to this transaction.
Ecobank was set up in 1985 in Lomé, Togo, where it is headquartered. Ecobank has presence in 36 countries across the African continent and in 4 other countries across the globe. It is one of the top three banks (by assets) in 14 of the countries.
As at June 2014, Ecobank had $23.4 billion of assets and had generated $255 million of profit before tax (for the 6 months to 30 June