We’ll grow HFC Bank among top five ; Staff lay off not a priority, Republic Bank MD
The Managing Director of Republic Bank Ltd (RBL), Mr Dulal-Whiteway, said the bank would use Ghana as a base to grow into other English-speaking African countries, in line with its Pan-African business growth strategy.
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“I want to say there will be no job losses because our business model is to grow HFC Bank to be among the top five banks in the country within the shortest possible time. We want to consolidate HFC Bank and make it bigger. This strategy will rather create opportunity for more staff, rather than less staff,” the managing director told a select group of journalists in Accra.
He added; “the most important assets that are not on the balance sheet are your people and customers. If you lose those two, you lose your business. Therefore, we have to develop our people and we have to ensure that we keep our customers.”
In the country to participate in the HFC Annual General Meeting on April 23, the Group CEO of Republic Bank of Trinidad and Tobago also took time to interact with key stakeholders, including staff of HFC Bank and the media, to explain their intentions as to where they would want to take the bank, should they acquire just eight per cent more shareholder stake in the bank, to become the controlling shareholders.
Acquiring controlling interest (51 per cent) in the local bank would mean that the day-to-day running of the bank would now revolve round the business strategy, model and philosophy of Republic Bank, which may decide to change the name of the local bank, restructure, re-align services and products and determine the strategic focus of the mortgage financing 25-five-year-old bank.
HFC Bank, then Home Finance Company, was set up with the support of the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to serve as a vehicle to close the housing deficit and catalyse mortgage financing in Ghana.
The GRAPHIC BUSINESS has learnt that currently RBL has already clinched some six per cent more shareholding in HFC Bank, bringing its total stake in the bank to 48 per cent, including a two per cent convertible note.
Between March 24 when Republic Bank presented offer documents to HFC and May 7 when the Mandatory Takeover Offer closes, existing shareholders of HFC Bank could tender their shares to RBL at premium price of GH¢1.66, which has been increased to GH¢1.95, about 47 per cent higher than the GH¢1.33 which was the price of HFC Bank shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange as of close of trading on March 20 when the offer price was determined.
Capacity development
Rather than sending people home, RBL said it would further train staff of the bank, sending some over to learn from the bank’s head office in Trinidad and Tobago and its other operations in the Caribbean such as in Grenada and Barbados.
Mr Dulal-Whiteway said the bank would first build processes and systems infrastructure, look at some product development and restructure some existing products and services to make them serve customers better.
“We’ve expertise in mortgage financing and we will also increase construction financing so that the housing stock can increase and make them available so customers can now come for mortgage to purchase them.”
Oil and gas
Ghana’s oil economy is also an important ingredient for RPL. The Group CEO said “we are happy about Ghana’s oil find. This is a business that we know very well and we’ll introduce that.”
Trinidad and Tobago has been drilling oil for about 100 years. In recent times, it has built its economy around gas processing and this has helped it increase that country’s per head income to US$20,000.