GTBank: New identity, new board, new leadership aiming for growth
Now trading with the new brand name, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), on the Nigerian Exchange, it is gradually emerging that the transition of GTBank into a financial holding company is part of efforts to reposition the top lender for growth as it puts its new organisational structure in place, with erstwhile chief executive officer of the bank, Segun Agbaje, assuming office as the new group CEO. All of this appeared aimed at strengthening the bank’s long-term competitiveness and growth prospect within the Nigerian banking sector and the global space.
The new GTCO had all of over 29.43 billion shares of the bank in the old structure listed in the new name at N28.55 per share on 24 June 2021, but this quickly rallied to N30 before profit-taking set in to moderate the uptick.
The Nigerian lender in a disclosure filed to the NGX announced its new board of directors, as well as other board changes made to its banking subsidiary following the approvals by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). According to the bank, the board will comprise Ibrahim Hassan as chairman; Miriam Olusanya as new managing director, succeeding Segun Agbaje; Olabode Agusto as non-executive director; Imoni Akpofure and Victoria Adefalo as independent non-executive directors; Jide Okuntola as deputy managing director, and Haruna Musa as executive director.
The newly formed holding company said the reorganisation is part of its restructuring process. It comes with the retirements of Osaretin Demuren as chairman; Adebayo Adeola, non-executive director; Demola Odeyemi, executive director; and Bolaji Larval, executive director.
However, the new board of GTCO will have Solo Oyinlola as chairman, Segun Agbaje as the group chief executive officer; with Cathy Echeozo as non-executive director; Suleiman Barau and Helen Bouygues as independent non-executive directors; and Adebanji Adeniyi as executive director.
Segun Agbaje, new GTCO chief executive, commenting on the completion of the corporate reorganisation, said: “We believe that a Holding Company Structure will allow us to take advantage of new business opportunities in the emerging competitive landscape and strengthen our earnings base. We are very excited to get started on the next phase of our incredible journey to driving Africa’s growth by making end-to-end financial services easily accessible to every African and African Business by leveraging technology and strategic partnerships. As a bank, we were always looking to meet every customer need: with our corporate reorganisation, we will be able to do more to help our customers thrive in this new world of digital technologies and unprecedented possibilities.
“Whilst we are evolving as an organisation, we remain committed to our founding values which have endeared our brand to millions of people across Africa and beyond, and which continues to drive our financial success. As a Proudly African and Truly International brand, we will continue to live by these values—of excellence, hard work and integrity, even as we create faster, cheaper, safer and more diverse products for people and businesses of varied types and sizes,” Agbaje further stated.
Agbaje: 10 years on banking wheels at GTCO, growing shareholders’ fund
Prior to the corporate reorganisation to GTCO, Guaranty Trust Bank has been at the forefront of delivering innovative banking products and services to customers and best-in-class Return-onEquity (RoE)to shareholders. The bank is widely regarded as one of the best managed financial institutions in Nigeria and has over the past decade, embarked on a period of unparalleled growth under the belts of Segun Agbaje’s leadership style, growing its customer base from less than three million customers in 2011 to over 24 million customers in 2020, and profit before tax from N45.5 billion at the end of the 2010 financial year to N238.1 billion at the end of the 2020 financial year.
However, ten years after Agbaje took over the mantle of leadership as managing director of the bank in 2011, following the demise of Tayo Aderinokun, the then managing director of GTBank, it is without a doubt that his leadership and steering of GTBank management has seen the bank grow in all assessment indices into becoming not just an enviable financial institution in Nigeria but the whole of Africa.
At the time Agbaje took over the leadership baton of the tier-1 lender in 2011, the bank’s total balance sheet size according to the bank’s 2010 audited financial results stood at N1.08 trillion; by the close of the 2014 financial period, it posted N2.126 trillion in total assets after rising from N1.904 trillion in 2013, N1.620 trillion in 2012 and N1.523 trillion at the end of Agbaje first anniversary as chief executive. By the year-end 2015, GTBank total assets expanded to N2.524 trillion.
Ten years on as chief executive officer, we could see significant expansion of the bank balance sheet as total assets increased at least by 12.07 percent annually, from N1.59 billion to N4.94 trillion in 2020. Thus, the bank’s balance sheet has expanded significantly as a result of cutting edge banking strategy and service excellence.