The Ghana Amalgamated Trust (GAT) is expected to hold at least a thirteen percent stake in the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) following the injection of GH¢127 million into the operations of the bank.
GAT, on January 21, 2020, completed the processes to support ADB to recapitalize to meet the minimum requirement set by the Bank of Ghana for all commercial banks as part of its reforms of the banking sector.
Citi Business News understands that per this move, ADB is now having capital strength of about seven hundred million cedis.
Commenting on the implication for the shareholding of ADB, its Managing Director, Dr. John Kofi Mensah explained that GAT now has access to a share of the ownership of the bank.
“Definitely all the shareholding structure will drop as it is not targeted at a particular shareholder. GAT’s ownership will be between ten and thirteen percent in terms of shareholding,” he told Citi Business News on the sidelines of the company’s thanksgiving service on Sunday, February 2, 2020.
Before the coming on board of GAT, the shareholding structure of ADB comprised; Financial Investment Trust – 60.50%, Government of Ghana – 32.30% and Retail investors & ADB staff – 7.20%.
Meanwhile, Dr. Kofi Mensah has emphasized that he is hopeful the capital injection will help in achieving the strategic plan set by the bank by 2022.
“We also had capital from the government of Ghana which was offloaded to GAT in the form of an SPV and at the moment, in our books, we have a stated capital of GH¢700 million. So, ADB is now well poised to deliver and also to deliver especially to the agribusiness sector.”
