Nairobi — A financial services group which recently applied for an investment banking licence in Kenya, has raised $300 million, an equivalent of Sh20.4 billion in equity capital for Nigeria's largest bank.

Renaissance Capital, which also announced its intention of acquiring the tottering stockbroking firm, Francis Thuo & Partners, acted as joint lead placement agent with JP Morgan in an equity capital offering for Nigeria's United Bank of Africa from international institutional investors.

In a press statement released in London last week, Renaissance Group CEO Stephen Jennings, said the achievement will continue to build their presence in Africa. "We are truly thrilled to have led the first sizeable international capital raising by a Nigerian company through placement of Global Depositary Receipts," he said. "As we continue to build our presence in the region, UBA's offering is the first of many capital markets transactions to come for us in Sub-Saharan Africa." UBA CEO, Tony Elumelu said the bank's international placement generated demands three times their initial target from a diverse group of high-quality Africa and emerging market investors.

"We have been overwhelmed by the response we have received from both the international and domestic offerings (the latter has been successfully anchored by UBA Global Markets) and must commend Renaissance Capital for the key role it played in successfully marketing our offer to international investors."

UBA is Nigeria's largest bank by assets, deposits, number of customers and branches.

The financial services firm which also has offices in Nairobi launched its operations in Africa early this year.

Portfolio

It has a large presence in West Africa and is still building its investment banking portfolio to create a pan-regional investment banking, research and asset management operation.

"Renaissance Group launched its African operations earlier this year, and we are well on our way to creating a fully-fledged operation, with offices now in Lagos and Nairobi," said Neil Harvey, CEO of Renaissance Capital Africa,

"Our participation in UBA's capital raising demonstrates how much we've already achieved in terms of building relationships and adding value to our clients in Nigeria."

The company has a market capitalisation of close to $10 billion (Sh700 billion) and has invested $1 billion (Sh70 billion) in top equity markets such as the London Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange and the Russian stock market.