Thirty years ago, the man whose official
signature is simply known as surebanker, Otunba Subomi Balogun, began a
dream when he established the first privately owned merchant bank in
Nigeria, originally called First City Merchant Bank. Today, 30 years on,
his son, Ladi Balogun, currently Group Managing Director of what has
now become First City Monument Bank Group, knows he has a task on his
hands. The task is to begin another 30-year journey of leading this bank
to even greater heights.
For if you are sitting on the chair as
chief executive of any organisation with a history as long as three
decades, some of those years of which you were a part of, there are
likely to be at least two emotions running inside you. The first would
be one in which you see yourself as being lucky. And that’s in the sense
that you will find in the history of the organisation, parameters to
benchmark whatever you hope to achieve as chief executive. The second
emotion that is likely to be running inside you is one that would
power-charge you, because you would be keen to set your own benchmark,
sometimes selfishly telling yourself: “This must be a benchmark no one
else can surpass.” Hey, you had better not tell that to shareholders,
public or private; otherwise they would have your skin! Of course, they
want to see yesterday’s profits made bigger today and then tomorrow and
the day after!
But could these emotions be running
right now inside of Ladi Balogun, the group chief executive of First
City Monument Group, owners of First City Monument Bank along with a
host of other financial services firms?
“The future is one in which we must
attain our vision. We must become the premier financial service group of
African origin, being a top three franchise in Nigeria and delivering
the best customer experience. We must live by our values of excellence,
professionalism, sustainability and customer focus,” the younger Balogun
said.
That comment suggests that Balogun is
aware of the whole notion of history and how in the world of business it
has to be bettered. For even though the FCMB Group has grown in the
last 30 years to what it is today, it is still a business that must
continue to grow. He seems to recognise that the ingredients of growth
are in building the FCMB franchise to a significant position in Nigeria
and in a way that allows its customers have a unique experience. It is
why he talks about values of excellence, professionalism, sustainability
and customer focus.
Balogun has been in the group for more
than a decade. In fact, he has been in banking since 1993 and as such
knows how important the pursuit of growth as a strategy has helped the
bank make progress. “Over the last three turbulent and eventful decades
in our industry and economy, we have evolved from a privately owned
merchant bank to a full service banking group with over 500,000
shareholders and two million customers. But on this significant occasion
as we advance towards another 30 even more remarkable years, it is
important to also hold fast to some of the enduring virtues and gifts
that have brought us this far: visionary and the courageous leadership
exemplified by our Founder, a culture of excellence: settling for
nothing but the very best, integrity, hard work and the grace of God”.
The bank has indeed made great progress
since it opened for business 30 years ago. For instance, in 1996, it
made a landmark loan syndication of N70 million, at the time the
largest, for the then National Fertilizer Company of Nigeria. Ladi
Balogun became chief executive in 2005 and has made a lot of push that
has contributed to the bank’s growth and development since then.
Early on in 2005, it embarked on an
initial public offering (IPO) towards meeting the N25 billion share
capital base and raked in N16billion. It would later go on to become one
of only 25 banks which achieved this target. Under Balogun, the bank
went on to acquire three banks, Cooperative Development Bank, Midas Bank
and Nigerian American Bank (the former Nigerian subsidiary of Bank of
Boston). This had at the time significantly announced the ambitious
intentions of both the bank under Balogun.
Growth has also come by way of numbers.
From just 26 branches in 2005, before the consolidation exercise, they
grew to 150 branches in 2007. It attracted sizable foreign shareholding
and entered into a Management Service Agreement with Sabre Capital the
same year, which provided requisite technical support primarily in the
area of consumer banking. The bank also raised its Tier 1 capital from
just over N31 billion to N133 billion as a result of another public
offer in 2007.
Significantly, Balogun, who had honed
his teeth in the area of corporate banking, has helped to midwife a
total turn around, with the bank consolidating its focus on universal
banking and in particular, seeing it develop an expertise in consumer
banking. In fact, it has developed deep interest in consumer banking
that it is now difficult for those who are familiar with its antecedent
to tell that it started off as a full-fledged merchant bank.
He thinks that this push in the
direction of consumer banking is good for business, citing recent and
frequent policy changes as underscoring the need to build “a robust
business with a strong retail presence at its core.”
“I foresee the bank building more
enduring relationships, acquiring 100,000 customers monthly and
solidifying our leadership position in consumer loan origination. I see
us taking our service standards in all ramifications to the highest
levels,” he said.
He is very positively bullish about how
he thinks the bank will be relating with its customers. “I see us being
a more helpful bank to businesses of all sizes. I see us creating a
truly competitive corporate bank distinguished by empowered and highly
skilled relationship managers, and I see us consolidating our investment
banking business and using its synergies to offer a more complete
service to our customers than competition. I urge us to believe it, play
our role and it will come to pass”.
That is why Balogun has overseen the
bank’s launch of several consumer products, implementation of a world
class central processing centre (CPC) and robust Transaction Banking
platform, offering of end-to-end solutions to corporate bodies, a
successful piloting of the Direct Sales Agent Scheme (DSA) and the
enhancement of both its SME and Public Sector business. These represent
growth and this growth is also showing up in the balance sheet as well.
In this year of celebrating 30 years,
half year result for 2013 that was recently released showed how much
desire the Ladi Balogun-led management wants to grow the numbers. For
instance, total earnings stood at N63.3 billion, 17.4 percent higher
than the N53.9 billion earnings made within the corresponding period of
2012. Profit before tax also rose to N10.647 billion from N7.799
billion.
Apart from the growth in earnings, the
statement shows positive growth in deposits within the first six months
of 2013. Deposits surged by 10 per cent to N680.426 billion from N615.6
billion in 2012. The bank’s profitability was also looking up and
reassuring, considering the fact that some first generation banks
comparatively performed marginally despite their large asset base. Group
account for the period saw the bank record an asset base of N923
billion, a growth of seven percent.
No comments:
Post a Comment