CAL Bank Ghana eyes oil, telecoms, mining sectors for growth
CAL Bank Ghana Limited on Wednesday said a new capital injection of GH¢75 million would boost its trade activity, expand and strengthen corporate banking and finance loan portfolio as well as focus on growing sectors such as oil and gas, energy, mining and telecommunications.
The Bank in April said it had raised GH¢75 million through a private placement, pushing its stated capital to GH¢100 million.
Investors in the private placement include African Development Partners I, (“ADP I”), an Africa-focused private equity fund advised by Development Partners International (“DPI”), Proparco of France and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) of Ghana.
Speaking at the Facts Behind the Figures programme of Ghana Stocks Exchange in Accra, Mr Philip Owiredu, Executive Director Cal Bank, said the funds would significantly boost the bank’s ability to increase its exposure limit to any single party and therefore increase its lending capacity.
He said the increase would ensure that the bank took advantage of existing opportunities in the oil and gas, energy, infrastructure, telecoms and utility sectors, which required larger transactions.
In addition, the bank would leverage the new equity to access cheaper funding from Development Finance Institutions to further strengthen its balance sheet for growth.
“Based on the bank’s existing relationships with various DFIs, the Bank expects to leverage the additional equity at least three times to fund its foreign currency portfolio,” Mr Owiredu said, adding, “This would improve the bank’s open forex positions and capital adequacy ratio to enhance trade activity and increase risk assets thereby increasing profitability”.
Mr Owiredu said the bank would invest in additional full service branches and alternative delivery channels including Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to help in the mobilisation of retail deposits, widen its footprint and enhance brand visibility.
Cal Bank plans to scale up its total branch network to 30 from the current 18 and have in place 100 ATMs by 2015 to increase access to retail deposits and reduce the bank’s cost of funds.
In addition, the bank will invest in technological platforms to improve service delivery to both corporate and retail clients.
Mr Frank Adu Jnr., Managing Director of Cal Bank, said the bank would continue to pursue growth in non-interest revenue by taking advantage of international trade finance and forex income.
The bank’s net profit for the first three months to March 2012 grew by 126.4 per cent to GH¢7.830 million from GH¢3.458 million in 2011 while total income was up to GH¢21.779 million from GH¢14.772 million.
Source: GNA