Titan currently owns 94.05% of Union Bank. With the new process initiated, it wants to acquire the remaining 5.95%. 

Titan Trust Bank (TTB) Limited announced Monday (May 8) its plan to acquire all of Union Bank's remaining shares from minority shareholders. The Nigerian bank, which was established in December 2018 and began operations in October 2019, hopes through this proposed acquisition to become the sole shareholder of Union Bank of Nigeria.

“The transaction will be implemented by way of a Scheme of Arrangement (“the Scheme’’) between the Bank and the Bank’s shareholders (“the Minority Shareholders”). [...] Under the terms of the Scheme, the Scheme Shares, being the outstanding shares of the Bank not already held by Titan Trust, will be acquired by Titan Trust for a consideration of N7.00 (Seven Naira) per share,” Union Bank informs in corporate disclosure. 

Titan Trust Bank is Union Bank’s majority shareholder since May 2022. At that time, Titan secured all the regulatory approvals to acquire 89.39% of one of Nigeria’s oldest listed banks. To finance the acquisition, Titan secured a $300 million loan from Afreximbank in June 2022. As of March 31, 2023, it was already owning 94.05% of the Nigerian bank. 

If it succeeds in acquiring the minority shares, it will then be able to merge its operations with those of Union Bank of Nigeria, forming a larger bank able to "provide financing of about US$3 billion over the medium term of which over US$600 million will directly support intra-regional trade finance," Afreximbank explained in June last year.

Titan Trust Bank is a subsidiary of Tropical General Investments Limited (TGI). This investment holding company has interests in a variety of sectors (chemicals, consumer goods, agribusiness) and countries in Africa (Tanzania, South Africa, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Morocco), Asia, and the Middle East. In 2019, through its UAE-based commodity trading subsidiary Vink Corporation DMCC, TGI established Titan Trust Bank in Nigeria.

Chamberline Moko