Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - RMB Holdings [JSE:RMH] confirmed on Monday that‚ through its parent FirstRand [JSE:FSR]‚ it has secured an investment banking licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria which required an initial capital investment of $100m.
RMB has been operating in Nigeria from a representative office since January 2010 and is already a meaningful player in the Nigerian investment banking sector.
Alan Pullinger‚ CEO of RMB‚ says that the licence will allow RMB to more rapidly build out its franchise‚ provide products and services to the corporate and institutional client segments as well as employ talented bankers in the country.
“We are very pleased to have secured this licence‚” said Pullinger. “Nigeria as a country and the West African region as a whole are experiencing significant growth and although we have already established a track record through our representative office‚ this licence will allow us to significantly scale up our in-country offering.”
RMB Nigeria will provide corporate advisory services‚ equity capital markets‚ infrastructure and project finance‚ resource finance‚ structured trade and commodity finance‚ and fixed income‚ currency and commodity services to large local‚ regional and international corporates already operating in or entering Nigeria and the broader West African economies.
Sizwe Nxasana‚ CEO of FirstRand‚ said that this development was in line with FirstRand’s strategy to build a presence in high growth African markets with attractive long term prospects.
“This move is consistent with our strategy as we often enter a new market through the appropriate operating franchise‚ in this case RMB‚ and the rest of the banking group may then follow. Nigeria currently offers strong growth prospects particularly with regards to corporate and investment banking.”
RMB Nigeria‚ with Michael Larbie as Chief Executive Officer‚ will operate from their offices at 12 Churchgate‚ Victoria Island‚ Lagos.
