Michael Larbie is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) Nigeria. He is the pioneer chief govt of the five-year outdated subsidiary of South Africa’s banking giant- FirstRand Group. In this interview with choose journalists forward of the bank’s fifth overstay in Nigeria, he speaks on the lender’s contribution to the economic system and trade points. CHIJIOKE NELSON was there.
How would you describe your operational profile in Nigeria?
Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) Nigeria is a subsidiary of FirstRand, one of many largest monetary providers teams in Africa. As a main African corporate and funding bank, we search to supply our shoppers progressive advisory, ficing, trading, corporate banking and principal investing options.
In Nigeria, we've got over 15 years of transacting expertise starting from advising on infrastructure tasks to funding varied transactions in actual property, oil and gasoline, manufacturing, telecoms, metal, fast-moving client items, and cement, amongst others. RMB Nigeria was licensed in 2012 and have become totally operational in April 2013. Prior to that, we had a consultant workplace in Lagos from 2010.
We deliver our wealth of worldwide and African expertise collected over time to the Nigerian banking panorama each from throughout the nation and from different jurisdictions.
Over the previous 5 years, we've got created a core shopper base of stable native corporations, multinationals and monetary sponsors. Our very focused strategy has enabled the bank to meaningfully assist key shoppers by means of completely different financial cycles and strengthened relationships as a trusted accomplice.
Having been round for 5 years, what milestones have you ever achieved?
We opened our doorways in Nigeria as a service provider bank in April 2013. Being awarded a service provider banking license and beginning a new enterprise have been our first milestones. Every shopper we've got engaged and labored with was, and nonetheless is, a key milestone. Emerging from the latest financial downturn stronger than we have been earlier than it began, was a milestone. The annual progress of our steadiness sheet and income are others.
We are additionally happy with the variety of pioneering transactions in which we've got participated over the previous 5 years together with; advising GB Foods and Helios on their acquisition of Watanmal West Africa, advising Actis on its acquisition of Sigma, advising the sellers in the sale of Ikeja City Mall to Hyprop Investments and Attacq, in addition to the continued demutualization of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The half funding of Azura Power, a greenfields unbiased energy producer can be a good instance. We have additionally availed commerce and dealing capital amenities to key shoppers equivalent to Unilever, BUA, Dangote, AIG Group, Dufil and Seven – Up. In Oil & Gas, we've got participated in the Shell/NNPC, Seplat RBL and Petrobras fund raisings.
RMB Nigeria additionally acted as joint-issuing home and bookrunner on the African Development Bank’s seven-year medium-term Naira word, a notable capital markets intervention. In 2017, the FirstRand Group added RMB Nigeria Stockbrokers to its Nigerian presence reinforcing its long-term imaginative and prescient to be a full-service monetary participant in this market.
Apart from banking capabilities and relationships, RMB Nigeria takes pleasure in being a good and main “banking citizen”. The bank’s robust corporate governance and conservative strategy to danger administration and strict compliance with laws and banking finest apply has seen a very measured strategy to doing enterprise. We are usually not making an attempt to essentially develop into the largest bank, however relatively aiming at changing into a trusted, dependable and solutionist accomplice to our shoppers and different stakeholders.
In which sector of the economic system do you've got most of your shoppers and investments?
Our shopper base cuts throughout all sectors of the Nigerian economic systemfast-moving client items, manufacturing, telecoms, oil and gasoline, agro-processing, providers, and infrastructure. On steadiness, we're at present extra skewed in direction of manufacturing. In our Global Markets enterprise, majority of our shoppers are in monetary providers sector – Banks, Insurance, PFAs and Asset Managers.
How have you ever dealt with competitors?
Increased competitors is a testomony to the resilience of the Nigerian economic system and to the potential for future financial progress. We embrace competitors as we imagine there may be room for a number of gamers to satisfy the wants of the broader market and economic system. To promote financial progress and growth, Nigeria requires vital quantities of capital which a few banks alone can not present. Each bank has a restrict as to the quantity of funding it may possibly provide each to a nation and to completely different sectors; it's due to this fact sensible to diversify exposures. We choose to accomplice with different monetary providers gamers whether it is to the good thing about our shoppers. Given we're a service provider bank, our competitors consists of different service provider banks, retail and industrial banks and capital market operators. We additionally see different banks as companions with whom dangers may be shared and deals collectively structured.
What distinctive proposals have you ever delivered to the Nigerian economic system?
RMB is a progressive and solutions-driven bank. We imagine in constructing long-term sustainable relationships with our shoppers by offering them with progressive concepts and options to swimsuit their distinctive circumstance. We deliver laborious considering and a can-do mindset to points and alternatives.
We are very happy with our various expertise pool who do the laborious considering. Our energy is our capacity to deliver native and worldwide solutionist considering to the desk. We construction essentially the most applicable ficing options to fulfill the wants of our shoppers, whether or not extending venture finances, structured lending or plain corporate lending. We leverage the worldwide attain of FirstRand, its larger scores and entry to effectively priced dollars to assist our shoppers.