Ecobank Secures $250m in Fresh Capital to Boost Growth

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) has successfully raised $250 million in Additional Tier 1 capital through a private placement demonstrating investor confidence in the bank’s strategy and growth prospects.

The capital raise is part of ETI’s efforts to strengthen its capital adequacy and enhance financial resilience, supporting its long-term growth ambitions across its diversified pan-African banking platform. This Additional Tier 1 (AT1) capital raise became effective on July 9, 2025, for a period of ten (10) days.

At its Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held on May 28, 2025, in Lomé, Togo shareholders approved the capital raise.

Renaissance Capital Africa has been appointed as the transaction adviser to ETI.

The capital raise represents a strategic initiative by ETI to strengthen its capital adequacy, enhance financial resilience, and support its long-term growth ambitions across its diversified pan-African banking platform.

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated had, in May, successfully tapped its $400 million 10.125 percent Notes due October 15, 2029, for an additional $125 million.

The Notes were consolidated and formed a single series with the $400 million 10.125 percent Notes issued on October 15, 2024.

The euro bond offering was issued at a premium with a new issue price of 102.634, or an effective yield of 9.375 percent, representing a 100-basis-point tightening in yield compared to the original issue.

The improved yield demonstrates investor confidence in Ecobank’s strategy execution and growth prospects.

Investor’s demand was also robust, achieving a final orderbook oversubscription rate of more than 2x, with strong participation from asset managers, banks, and development finance institutions across Africa, the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, Asia, and the Middle East.

The net proceeds from the issuance of the Notes are being used for general corporate purposes, primarily to refinance upcoming debt maturities.

For the period ended December 31, 2024, the Group’s profit after tax (PAT) attributable to shareholders of ETI for 2024 increased by 16 percent or 45 percent when the impact of exchange rate movements is excluded (that is, constant currency) to $333 million.

This growth was primarily fuelled by strong fee and commission income performance, efficiency improvements, reduced impairment charges on other financial assets, and a lower effective tax rate.

The Group profit before tax (PBT) increased 13 percent or 33 percent at constant currency to $658 million. The contributing factors to the increase were an increase in net interest margin (NIM), which benefited from lower funding costs, higher net fees and commission income, efficiency gains from the ongoing transformation agenda under ETI’s GTR strategy, and lower impairment charges on other financial assets besides loans.

ETI net revenues (the sum of the net interest income (NII) and non-interest revenue (NIR) was $2.1 billion in 2024, rising by 1 percent or 18 percent at constant currency. The contributing drivers of this growth were an expansion in the NIM, increased investment securities balances, and increased net fees and commission income.