SGBL raises capital

Group expects net profits of $115 million in 2012

Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL) has raised its capital by $325 million, thus increasing its equity to $810 million. SGBL said the strengthening of its equity will enable the group to carry on with its development plan, which includes expansion abroad.

Part of the amount, $125 million, was raised through the issuance of preferred shares. SGBL’s extraordinary general assembly, convened on December 15, 2012, approved the issuance of 12,500 ‘Series 2012’ perpetual redeemable non-cumulative preferred shares. The new issue had an issue price of $10,000 per share, and a yield of seven percent. These shares have no voting rights, are non convertible into common shares, and are redeemable by SGBL five years after their issuance. The bank said it had initially planned to raise $100 million from the new shares, but that the issue was oversubscribed, raising this value to $125 million.

The capital raise was also sourced from SGBL’s existing shareholders, through the issuance of 6,535 new common shares at a total value of $100 million. The rest of the amount, $100 million, will be retained from SGBL’s 2012 profits.

Antoun Sehnaoui, chairman and CEO of SGBL group, said: “This operation is part of SGBL group’s development strategy; it will enable us to consolidate our presence and to seize growth opportunities at the domestic, international, and regional levels, despite the difficult environment.”

SGBL projected $115 million of profits in 2012. The bank reported net profits of around $90 million in the first nine months of 2012, a 30 percent increase from the same period last year. SGBL’s total assets reached $10.6 billion at end-September, almost unchanged from end-2011. Customer deposits were also unchanged from end-2011at $8.5 billion.