Shareholders of Ecobank have approved the governance action plan proposed by the board of directors in compliance with a Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) directive. The implementation of the detailed 51 point plan will commence immediately.
Shareholders gave their approval at an extraordinary general meeting attended by institutional shareholders as well as minority shareholders over the weekend.
The new plan retained the current 12 person board of directors of the bank following the decision by the institutional shareholders of the PIC, AMCON and IFC to withdraw a motion which they had proposed to create a smaller interim board. This would have run the bank until immediately after the presentation of the 2013 results is expected to take place in June.
At the EGM, shareholders also passed resolutions to amend the company’s articles of association. Under the new articles of association, Ecobank shall not undertake any acquisition, merger or disposal of the company’s assets whose value is equal to or above 20% of the book value of the company without the approval of a simple majority of the shareholders present in general meeting.
Shareholders voted to limit the maximum size of the board at 15 members and to ensure that no director could serve more than nine years in total.
But shareholders at the meeting refused to pass a resolution to authorise the board of directors to raise additional capital as the company may require up of up to 20% of the current issued capital of the company, without reference to the general meeting, to at any time within a period of three years from the date of its adoption.
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), incorporated in Lome, Togo is the parent company of the leading independent pan-African banking group, Ecobank. It currently has a presence in 35 African countries.
