Zenith Banik’s entry into the capital market in search of N130 billion through its public offer of 1,763 billion ordinary shares and rights issue of 1.655 billion shares discounted at N7.19 and N9.19 respectively, is a clear indication that beyond the urge to grow the institutions capital base, the management of Zenith also desires that the bank’s investors should also partake of its well known fortunes.

Since Zenith Bank Plc went public in 2004 and its shares got listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange at N10.90, the bank has proved to all that it was in business to distinguish itself and rewrite the history of stock trading as it’s stocks price movement in the market has clearly shown. Zenith’s stock, above all, has enjoyed a geometric progression from its initial listed price in 2004 to N66.14 per share at the end of trading at the Nigerian Stock Exchange on June 30, 2007, representing a total gain of over N55.24 or over 600 per cent per share within 36 months. It is also an acknowledged fact that after its 2006 public offer, Zenith Bank’s Stock appreciated from N16.90 to gross the N60.00 mark, a feat that made the bank’s stock the highest priced banking stock in the market. That price leap represented a total gain of N49.24 per share or 291.36 per cent.

The story behind Zenith Bank does not just end with its share price appreciation investors in the institution over the period since its listing in the NSE, have also benefited from dividend payouts as the bank kept its promise by paying out as much as N20 billion since the initial Public Offering of 2004.

According to the bank and as acknowledge by investors, "shareholders received N4.2 billion or 70 kobo per share in 2004/2005, N6.6. billion or N1.10 per share in 2005/2006 and N9.2 billion or N1.00 per share in the 2006/2007 financial year. The dividend payout for the 2006/2007 accounting period was also capped with a bonus of one share for every four shares held by shareholders, says the bank.

Just before the commencement of the on-going offer, Zenith Bank’s stocks were trading at N46.09, With the substantial discount in the IPO coupled with the impressive first quarter trading result already at the disposal of the investing public, there’s only one direction for the current outing-upward bound.
As revealed by the bank, its first quarter results confirm Zenith Bank’s position as a high performer with commendable improvement in all parameters. According to the disclosures Zenith Bank posted a profit before tax of N10.33 billion, up from N6.41 billion in the corresponding period of last year. After provision for tax deductions, the bank’s profit stood at N8.06 billion indicating a remarkable increase of 70 percent over the N4.73 billion earned for the same period of 2006.

A profile of Zenith operations over the last five years reveal an equally impressive performance on all parameters. The bank excited its investors and also challenged its competitors in the course of the year when it announced that its total assets had crossed the one trillion naira mark and stood at that time, which was June 2007 at N1.271 trillion. That figure grew from N153.44 billion at the end of June 2003 by over 730.06 per cent to record the enviable feat. It was the first time any Nigerian bank was to have total assets in excess of one trillion naira.

Over the same period also, the bank’s gross earnings flipped up from N17.8 billion to N94.9 billion representing a 433.14 per cent growth, even as profit before tax followed the same order by about 372.42 per cent from a low of N5.44 billion to a record high of N25.7 billion Provision for taxation put the profit level at N18.8 billion from N4.42 billion indicating an increase of 327.27 per cent.

Expectedly arising from the activism of its instruments, shareholders funds grew from N12.651 billion to N114.6 billion representing an upward push of a whopping 823.81 per cent, in addition to a corresponding rise in total deposit from N61.5 billion to N634.5 billion, resulting in an increase of a staggering 931.54 per cent.

To underline the quality and efficiency of its portfolio management, the bank has continued in its strong performance on the quality of its assets, surpassing its own record of 1.5 per cent of non-performing loans with a new figure of 1.1 per cent as against the prevailing industry average of 18 per cent. In its drive to continue on its winning spree, Zenith Bank has begun to look beyond the Nations shores to flex its financial muscles. In this regard, the bank in April 2007 opened its wholly owned United Kingdom subsidiary, Zenith Bank UK after coming clean and unscathed from a rigorous approval process by the Financial Services Authority of the United Kingdom, considered in financial services circles as the strictest financial regulatory authority in the world.

Haven earned the FSA’s nod to open its doors for business on the strength of its impressive application, it became therefore a matter of routine for Zenith to have another of its subsidiary in Accra Ghana, which opened for business in November 2005 and also a representative office in Johannesburg South Africa.
In addition, Zenith Bank Plc was very recently recognized by the Council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the stock’s performance this year with the award of ‘Quoted Company of the year.’

Feelers from the investing public point to the direction that neither the direct offers nor the rights issues would be found wanting as indications point to the offer being oversubscribed at the close of the trading period. Zenith Bank’s shares, remarked an investor who asked to remain anonymous "are investors toasts, any day."