IBTC Chartered Bank Plc, which was last week acquired by Standard Bank Group Limited, Africa‘s largest lender, has said it is starting a fund that will invest largely in fixed- income instruments. IBTC is offering 10 million units of the Guaranteed Investment Fund to investors at N100 each from Monday (August 17) until October 3, the Lagos-based bank said in a statement on its web site.

The fund hopes to raise N1bn to be invested in bonds and other securities in Nigeria. The fund, whose objective is to “achieve long-term capital appreciation,” will be managed by its asset-management and stock-broking subsidiary, IBTC Asset Management Limited. Local and foreign fund managers have helped the Nigerian stock market‘s main index rise 52 per cent so far this year, fuelled mainly by banks selling shares to beef up their minimum capital requirements.

On August 23, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, said fund buying of Nigerian stocks more than tripled to N376bn last year, from N117bn a year earlier.

Standard Bank, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 20, acquired a controlling equity stake in IBTC through a tender offer of shares worth $400m.