Shareholders approve Access/Diamond merger

At a court ordered meeting, March 5, the shareholders of Access Bank and Diamond Bank approved the scheme of merger between the two banks.

The voting results at the resolutions showed that 99.98 percent (representing 15.1bn shares) of Diamond bank shareholders voted in favour of the merger. 0.02 percent voted to abstain from the merger while there wasn’t a single vote against the merger.

For Access bank shareholders, 97.89 percent (representing 14.3bn of a total of 14.6bn shares) voted for the merger while 2.10 percent voted against.

Following the approvals by the banks’ shareholders, regulatory approvals from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) are expected to be obtained this month.

A timely approval from the CBN and SEC is crucial for the banks to meet the April 2019 timeline given for the completion of the merger.

At the close of market today, Access gained 0.8% to N6.00/share while Diamond was flat at N2.50/share.

LOLADE AKINMURELE