As part of its development aspirations, Fidelity Bank Plc has announced that the proposed acquisition of Union Bank UK has started.
In a regulatory filing yesterday, Fidelity Bank announced that it had entered into a legally binding agreement to acquire a 100% equity position in Union Bank United Kingdom Limited, for which the Central Bank of Nigeria had given a letter of “No Objection.”
However, the acquisition is dependent on the Prudential Regulatory Authority of the United Kingdom approving it.
Commenting on the transaction, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank Plc, Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe stated: “This transaction aligns with our strategic plan of expanding our service touchpoints beyond the Nigerian market and providing straight-through services that meet and exceed the needs of our growing clients.”
The planned acquisition represented Fidelity Bank’s entry into the global marketplace and represents yet another significant turning point in the bank’s rising stature as a prominent African bank.
Recent upgrades by Fitch Ratings to the bank’s national long-term rating from “BBB+(nga)” to “A(nga)” and long-term issuer default rating (IDR) from “B-” to “B” show the bank’s improved creditworthiness.
As a result of the bank’s perseverance and performance throughout the cycle, Standard and Poor’s, another major rating agency, raised the bank’s national scale ratings ‘to ngBBB/ngA-2′ from ‘ngBBB-/ngA-3’
Onyeali-Ikpe, CEO of Fidelity Bank, explained:
“The diverse service bouquet and business model of Union Bank UK offered a compelling synergy, and we hope to build on the existing capacity to create a scalable and more sustaining service franchise that will support the wider ecosystem of our trade businesses and diaspora banking services”
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