Guaranty Trust (GTCO), the parent of a Nigerian bank with a high market value, has planned to list in London after selling USD 150 million in shares to investors.
This happens as lenders rush to complete the country’s largest bank recapitalisation in decades. GTCO mentioned that a sale launched on Monday, and led by Citigroup, would meet a central bank target for all banks to raise capital by March 2026, as Nigeria recovers from currency devaluations.
IPO in the UK
Lagos-listed GTCO is valued at USD 1.8 billion, and it aims to be the first Nigerian financial services firm to secure a secondary listing in London. This comes as lenders look abroad for capital after a 70% drop in the NGN versus the USD in the past years. The UK market also suffered from a decrease in IPOs in recent years, with some companies being taken private or moving to their primary listings in the US. For instance, Cobalt Holdings, an investment group, cancelled its plans for a UK IPO last month, and fintech Wise announced that it would move its primary listing to New York.
Even though this trend of businesses moving out of London persists, GTCO believes that the LSE still remains attractive, especially for organisations that are predominantly African and have most of their revenue from anglophone west African countries. Nigeria’s central bank required in 2024 that bank replenish their capital in order to rebuild buffers against bad loans after the weakening of the NGN. The Nigerian currency weakened due to President Tinubu’s wish to cut fuel subsidies. The Central Bank of Nigeria said that local banks lack the lending capacity required to support President Tinubu’s goal of reaching a USD 1 trillion economy by the end of the decade.
Guaranty Trust Bank, GTCO’s main unit, experienced an over 15% YoY increase in its loan book in the first quarter of 2025, which reflected a stabilisation in the NGN and improved economy. GTCO joins other firms, such as Greece’s Metlen Energy & Metals and private equity-backed software group Visma, in their plans to have a UK IPO.
