COMMERCIAL BANK-CAMEROON : institution increases capital by 7.5 billion FCFA
This increase in the resources of the bank controlled at 98 % by the State of Cameroon represents approximately 45.45 %. The Commercial Bank-Cameroon (CBC) through the Chairman, Alfred Tiki has signed a capital boost statement to increase from 16.5 billion to 24 billion FCFA, an increase of 7.5 billion FCFA (+ 45.45 %). This decision, we learn, was taken by the shareholders during an extraordinary general meeting held in Douala, on June 22, and made public on July 19.
The chairman of the CBC’s Board of directors, Alfred Tiki, who signed the final communiqué of this increase decision has not explain the ins and outs of this operation. But, he indicates that this falls within the framework of the “positive” evolution of the restructuring process marked in particular by the recruitment of a council to accompany the State in this decisive phase of valuation and evaluation of the Bank. This is all the more so since the bank shows a result of 5.1 billion FCFA counting for the 2022 financial year.
This new increase in the capital of the CBC, which will have to be validated by the national and subregional monetary umbrella bodies, comes just three years after the last one that occurred in 2020. In July of that year, the bank had increased its capital from 12 billion to 16.5 billion FCFA by incorporating reserves, an increase of nearly 4.5 billion FCFA.
For the moment, the state controls 98% of the capital of the CBC following the recapitalization of this bank to the tune of 12 billion FCFA in 2013. In 2022, the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, launched a notice of expression of interest, to recruit a council that will assist the State in the process of finalizing the restructuring of the CBC.
The assistance will focus on the implementation process of the disengagement clause contained in the CBC restructuring plan. To do this, the consultant will have to develop the overall schedule of the operation; verify compliance with the procedures and legal prerequisites necessary for legal regularity; accompany the State in the selection of all the necessary stakeholders; business lawyers, chartered accountant, financial analyst, banking expert, human resources expert, banking organization expert, among others.
This consultant must also accompany the State in the conduct of the operation on the stock exchange and prepare a notice of solicitation for expression of interest (Asmi) for the selection of a reference shareholder for the CBC. The files had to reach the Ministry of Finance on April 5, 2022. The council could be an investment bank, a law firm or a group of legal and financial firms.
Founded in 1997, the CBC experienced, in 2009, difficulties in terms of compliance with prudential ratios and preservation of equity. The bank was then headed by the businessman Yves Michel Fotso, now imprisoned as part of a legal procedure for embezzlement and complicity in embezzlement of public funds. It concerns his management of the time when he was director-general manager (ADG) of Camair, the defunct national airline, later replaced by Camair-Co. The provisional administration of the bank since that time has been extended six times until 2016.
Sorelle Ninguem
