(Ecofin Agency) - Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) has suffered a drop of 8% on the Nigerian Stock Exchange over the first six days of February 2020. This is bad news after the good performance (+14.6%) in the previous month, the second strongest monthly performance since July 2018, according to market data collected by the Ecofin Agency.

The Ecobank share hit peak value at 20.8 naira in July 2018, but it has accumulated 16 months of negative performance in a volume equivalent to 633.6 million shares traded. Over the first nine months of 2019, ETI recorded a net profit of $214 million, 13% less than the figure in the same period in 2018. Profitability for investors is also declining, and changes in the Zimbabwean market could take a heavy blow, once the group has fully appreciated the new measures taken in this country with regard to the banking sector.

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated welcomed a new shareholder in 2019, namely the banking investment vehicle Arise BV, an entity controlled by institutional investors from the Netherlands and Norway and focused on the African banking sector. The shares acquired by Arise BV were held by the International Finance Corporation.

Performances for the whole year 2019 are expected to be released on 7 April 2020.

Idriss Linge