Takeover of ADB by UniBank 'not approved' – BoG declares

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has dismissed the purported takeover of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) by another local bank, Unibank Ghana Limited. “Just to clarify… the Central Bank has not given approval to the purported takeover or through the pledging of shares of the Agricultural Development Bank to uniBank,” Governor of BoG, Dr Ernest Addison stated Wednesday. Commissioning the new Ecobank head office building in Accra, he said the central Bank has neither sanctioned the change of ADB ownership nor the willing of the majority shareholder’s rights to Unibank. The Business and Financial Times newspaper reported Wednesday that some key shareholders of ADB had pledged their rights and voting rights, among others to the UniBank Ghana Limited. Read also: UniBank acquires ADB in 600 million cedis deal The consortium is led by Belstar Capital–a turnkey project finance and implementation institution–also includes Starmount Development Company Limited, EDC Investments Limited and SIC-FSL. Speaking on the Sunrise morning show on 3FM Earlier, Unibank Executive Director, Clifford Mettle, confirmed the takeover, and described it as a strategic move that will be beneficial to both parties. Meanwhile the Ghana Stock Exchange suspended the trading of ADB shares on Ghana’s Stock Exchange effective March 7, 2017. A statement from the Ghana Stock Exchange stated, “With reference to Section 7 of the GSE Automated Trading Rules (ATS), the Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), in consultation with the Chairman of the GSE Council has suspended trading in the shares of ADB effective March 7, 2018” . The move according to the GSE is to allow for the clarification of purported takeover of ADB by UniBank, the statement said on Wednesday. “This is to allow the GSE clarify news on a purported take-over of ADB. The investing public will be duly informed of the outcome and resumption of trading in the shares of ADB”, the statement read. By Grace Asare|editors.3news.com|Ghana