History
FirstInland Bank Plc is the result of the merger in December, 2005, of four Nigerian banks, namely First Atlantic Bank Plc, IMB International Bank Plc and NUB International Bank Ltd. It commenced operations in January 2006 with an authorized share capital of N10 billion divided into 20 billion ordinary shares of 50kobo each and a combined issue and paid p capital of N4.5 billion divided by 9.7 billion ordinary shares of 50kobo each.

The Offer
It is offering for subscription five billion ordinary shares of 50kobo each at N9.50 per share, rights issue of 968.8 million ordinary shares of 50 each at N8.50 per share.

Offer opens on January 3 and closes on January 31, 2008 and the minimum units an investor can subscribe to is 1,000 ordinary shares and in multiples of 100 thereafter.

Purpose
The purpose of the offer is to finance the expansion of branch network, upgrade of information technology infrastructure, recapitalization and development of subsidiaries and to enhance working capital.

Financials
For the financial year ending April 30, 2007, FirstInland Bank reported gross earnings of N27.5 billion and profit after tax of N2.6 billion compared with gross earnings of N2.98 billion and a loss after tax of N10.3 billion.

Based on this, the directors forecast that ceteris paribus, the bank gross earnings would increase to N50.015 billion for the financial year ending April 30, 2008 while profit after tax would be N8.9 billion. The board of the bank has proposed a dividend of 31 kobo for 2009 financial year.

For more information or subscription, call
Sochi, 0805-912-0358.

One luv, am out.