Nigerian bank, Sterling Bank PLC has restructured and taken on a new name, Sterling Financial Holdings Company Limited ie HoldCo, after shareholders agreed to transfer their investment into the HoldCo, which will henceforth become a parent company.
More than 28,790,418,124 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each in the issued and paid-up share capital of Sterling Bank held by the Scheme Shareholders were moved to Sterling Financial Holdings Company Limited. This will ensure that investors, who held the transferred shares in Sterling Bank, had the same volume of shares, equally in the new HoldCo.
Additionally, the assets, liabilities, and undertakings related to the non-interest banking business in Sterling Bank will be moved over to The Alternative Bank Limited, which was approved in principle as a standalone company about 10 months ago.
Sterling Bank had allegedly made this move to compete against Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Access Holdings, and other banking institutions looking to move into other markets other than core banking.
It is noteworthy to remember that GTCO and Access Holdings were created to act as parent companies to Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) and Access Bank respectively, in a move to accommodate more ventures that were not mainly core banking.