Nigeria's First Bank plans acquisitions with bond

By Chijioke Ohuocha

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's First Bank intends to use a planned 500 billion naira bond to help fund acquisitions both in Nigeria and abroad, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Nigeria's central bank has said it expects a second round of consolidation in the banking industry after injecting 600 billion naira into the sector since mid-August to bail out nine weakly capitalised institutions.

"If there is any bank in Nigeria that is ready or is adequately prepared for an acquisition, I think there is no other bank than First Bank," Chief Executive Bisi Onasanya told a conference call.

"We do have plans for an international acquisition, a merger, but we also have our own expansion strategy," he said, adding that discussions about an international deal were ongoing but declining to give any further details.

First Bank shareholders gave approval in August for a bond issuance of up to 500 billion naira.

Onasanya said Nigeria remained the most attractive market in sub-Saharan Africa for First Bank and that it also intended to continue its domestic consolidation efforts.

"We will dimension the candidate very well and will only take decisions on candidates that will add greater value to the First Bank balance sheet," he said.

The central bank injected 400 billion naira into Afribank, Finbank, Intercontinental Bank, Oceanic Bank and Union Bank on August 14 and sacked top executives after an audit found lax governance had left them so weakly capitalised they posed a systemic risk.