FCMB Group Plc (FCMB), the Nigerian lender that acquired bailed-out FinBank Plc three years ago, plans to raise about $300 million of funding this year to boost consumer lending.
FCMB, based in the commercial capital, Lagos, may consider issuing Eurobonds if market conditions are favorable, Chief Executive Officer Ladi Balogun said in an e-mailed reply to questions yesterday.
“Our preferred source of funding has been the loan markets as opposed to bond markets due to more stable pricing,” he said. “We will probably get to about 40 percent of our loan book being personal lending.”
The CEO said FCMB plans to increase its loan book by about 20 percent to 540 billion naira ($3.3 billion) this year, as it joins other Nigerian lenders in raising debt to boost credit to consumers and fund infrastructure in Africa’s largest economy. The lender acquired FinBank in 2011, one of eight banks bailed out by the Central Bank of Nigeria during a debt crisis in 2009.
The bank is targeting a return on equity of 15 percent this year and 20 percent in 2016 compared with 13 percent in 2013, Balogun said. FCMB plans to increase its customers to four million by 2016 from 2.5 million, he said.
FCMB’s profit rose 21 percent to 5.05 billion naira in the three months through March from a year earlier, the company said in April.
Source: Bloomberg