…The Bank said its Nigerian Banking Subsidiary contributed 46% of 2024 dividend paid to shareholders (the balance coming from other non-bank subsidiaries).
WED JUNE 18 2025-theGBJournal| ”Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the FCMB Group expects to have sufficient buffers to maintain its dividend policy for the financial year 2025 and the immediate subsequent years,” FCMB said on Tuesday.
The Bank noted that its Nigerian Banking Subsidiary contributed 46% of 2024 dividend paid to shareholders (the balance coming from other non-bank subsidiaries).
The bank’s clarification follows recent Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) directive on enhanced prudential measures for banks operating under regulatory forbearance.
FCMB Group’s Nigerian Banking Subsidiary currently has loans under CBN forbearance (credit exposures to 3 entities and 2 obligors) amounting to N207.6 billion as at 31st May 2025 (down from N538.8billion as at September 30th, 2024). These are currently classified as Stage 2 loans.
The Bank said it has made provisions for these loans over the last few years, and intensified resolution efforts have led to over 60%reductioninits credit forbearance exposures.
”Once these loans exit the CBN forbearance regime, we anticipate that this would lead to an initial spike in Stage 3 loans to ~11.5% of the total loan book which would decline below 10% by the end of the financial year, based on anticipated loan book growth,” FCMB said in the statement signed by its Company Secretary, Funmi Adedibu.
FCMB equally confirmed that it has one additional obligor (classified as a Stage 1 loan since drawdown to date) on the CBN forbearance for Single Obligor Limit (SOL).
”This Obligor will be brought within SOL limit by September30th, 2025, following the conversion to equity of a recently concluded N23.1 billion Convertible Loan and audited nine months projected retained earnings,” the Bank said.
The Group has already received CBN approval for the capital verification of the Convertible Loan and we are currently processing the other regulatory approvals required.
The Group said it intends to conclude this process, including down streaming the capital proceeds to the Bank by the end of July 2025.
This would effectively take the Share Capital and Share Premium of the Bank to ~N267 billion.
FCNB strongly noted that its Capital Adequacy will remain above the regulatory minimum of 15%for international banks post forbearance, reinforced with the addition of the converted equity by July 2025 and the planned audit of nine months retained earnings.
X-@theGBJournal|Facebook-the Government and Business Journal|email:gbj@govbusinessjournal.com|govandbusinessj@gmail.com
