Ecobank to amend company’s article of association

The Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) will amend its Article of Association, a statement issued at the end of its Extra Ordinary Meeting, on Tuesday in Abuja has said.

The statement signed by Mr Nadi Ouadraogo, the Head of Communications said the amendment was passed in a resolution in the just concluded meeting.

“The extraordinary general meeting passed resolutions to amend the company’s Articles. Under the new articles of association, ETI shall not undertake any acquisition, merger or disposal of company’s assets whose value is equal to or above 20 per cent of its book value.

“This can only be done with the approval of a simple majority of the shareholders present at the general meeting,’’ it said. It added that shareholders voted to limit the maximum size of the board to15 members and to ensure that no director could serve more than nine years in total. A resolution to authorise the board of directors to raise additional capital up to 20 per cent of the current issued capital of the company without reference to the general meeting was not passed.

According to the statement, shareholders passed the governance Action Plan proposed by the board of directors in compliance with the recommendations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria. It added that the recommendation was also contained in a joint report by SEC and the international firm such as KPMG.

“The implementation of the detailed 51 points plan will commence immediately. The meeting, which was attended by institutional shareholders as well as minority shareholders, the current 12 person Board of Directors of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated was retained.

“This followed the decision by the institutional shareholders of Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) to withdraw a motion to create Smaller Interim Board.

“This will have run the bank until immediately after the presentation of the 2013 results is expected to take place in June,’’ it added.