Banks’ values rise to N30tr
By Victor Idajili
Total market value of Nigerian banks have risen above N30 trillion as fresh capital injections by existing and new investors boosted the capitalisation of the banking sector.
Data provided by the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), where the largest banks are listed and private market intelligence yesterday indicated that the realistic worth of Nigerian banks have more than doubled.
The increase was due to issuance of additional shares by recapitalising banks and upward revaluation of banks by the investing public following positive sentiments that have trailed the recapitalisation.
Publicly quoted banks, which controls more than two-thirds of the banking industry’s balance sheet, also remain the most valued banks, accounting for about N21 trillion of the estimated industry value.
The five biggest banks, in terms of capitalisation, account for nearly half of the industry’s value, underlining the difference between book values and balance sheets and investor-moderated current worth of banks.
The five biggest banks – Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Zenith Bank International, First HoldCo, Stanbic IBTC Holdings and United Bank for Africa (UBA) – are valued at about N15 trillion, nearly half of the industry’s valuation.
The 13 listed banks altogether accounted for N20.7 trillion, with substantial increases in market values of the banks.
A breakdown indicated current value of N4.35 trillion, N3.82 trillion, N2.31 trillion, N2.12 trillion and N2.10 trillion for GTCO, Zenith Bank, First HoldCo, Stanbic IBTC and UBA respectively.
Others include Access Holdings, N1.38 trillion; Wema Bank, N1.09 trillion; Ecobank Transnational, N1.068 trillion; Fidelity Bank, N984 billion; FCMB Group, N562 billion; Jaiz Bank, N459 billion and Sterling Financial Holdings Company, which was valued at N409 billion.
