From This day Online

A Federal High Court in Lagos, presided over by Justice Isaac Ejiofor, yesterday approved the final merger of Intercontinental Bank Plc, with three others firms.

The other three banks included; Equity Bank of Nigeria Plc, Gateway Bank and Global Bank.
Delivering a ruling in a joint petition brought by the four banks, Justice Ejiofor said the banks’ prayer for final merger  to form Intercontinental Bank Plc, had been granted.
The court also ordered the cancellation of the authorised and issued share capital of Equity Bank, Gateway Bank and Global Bank and allotted the shares of Intercontinental Bank to the share holders of the three other banks as fully paid ordinary shares upon the exchange ratio set out in the scheme of merger.
Specifically, the judge ordered that the whole authorised and issued share capital of Equity Bank, Gateway Bank, and Global Bank shall be delivered up and canceled.
The judge also held that the shares in the Intercontinental Bank shall be issued and allotted as fully paid up ordinary shares of Equity Bank, Gateway Bank and Global Bank upon the exchange ratio set out in the merger scheme.
He ordered that the holders of the fully paid up ordinary shares of the Intercontinental Bank as at September 30, be the recipient of the shares due to Intercontinental Bank from exchange of fully paid up shares held in Equity Bank by Intercontinental  at the ratio three extra Equity Bank shares for every 43 ordinary shares held in Intercontinental Bank.
Justice Ejiofor also ordered that all assets and liability of Equity, Gateway, and Global banks be transferred to and vested with Intercontinental Bank without further act or deed, while the three merging banks were to be dissolved without winding up.
He also held that all legal proceedings by or pending against the three banks, Equity, Gateway and Global should be maintained by Intercontinental Bank.

While the merger takes effect from the date the court made the order sanctioning the scheme.
With the approval yesterday, the bank has become the first merged bank to effectively take off under the consolidation programme initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria last year.
The merger was packaged by the renowned law firm of Aina, Blankson and Co as the lead legal consultant.

From Reuters

LONDON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - The boards of two emerging market investment trusts run by JP Morgan’s fund arm and F&C Asset Management  called for a merger on Monday, which if agreed would create one of the largest funds in the sector.

The proposal would create a portfolio with total assets, based on values taken at the end of August, of 428 million pounds ($754.3 million), according to the Association of Investment Trust Companies.

The two listed funds are called the JP Morgan Fleming Emerging Markets Investment Trust (JMG.L: and the F&C Emerging Markets Investment Trust (If they merge, the new portfolio will be run by JP Morgan Asset Management. Shareholders at both funds are expected to vote on proposals later this year, David Barron, head of investment trust at JP Morgan Asset Management, told Reuters. A merger would underscore the strong growth of trusts that invest in emerging market companies and countries, he said.

"At the moment, it (the sector) is extremely popular. What the boards are trying to do is create a larger and more liquid trust with a high profile."

At present, the largest portfolio in this sector is the Templeton Emerging Markets Trust, with total assets just under 1.3 billion pounds, according to end-August data from the AITC.

A merger would be carried out by restructuring the F&C Emerging Markets Trust, offering shareholders the option of taking up new JPMF Emerging Markets Trust shares, or by liquidating all or some of their holdings for cash, the trusts said in a statement.

JP Morgan will make a cash contribution equal to 1 percent of the asset value rolling into the JP Morgan fund, of which about half will go to shareholders of the F&C Emerging Markets Trust and the other half to JPMF Emerging Markets Trust shareholders.

JPMF Emerging Markets will incur no asset or income dilution as a result of the transaction," the statement added.

Weblogs.com-VeriSign: Details Starting To Emerge; Price Tag $2.3 Million: Updated at 11:50 p.m. eastern to include interview with Dave Winer: VeriSign moved quickly tonight to shift the Weblogs.com story from reports of a sale to what the company will do with its new acquisition from Dave Winer. Michael Graves, the techno-evangelist for the Real Time Web team at VeriSign, appropriately blogged the confirmation, the reasons for the purchase and plans for the site.
Last Thursday, the site processed 1.96 million pings in one day, nearly twice the amount when the two started talking during the summer. With the toll only increasing, the options for Dave as Graves lays them out were to invest significant capital in more robust infrastructure, sell to someone who would do that or death by overuse.
VeriSign already runs the DSL Registry and other services with immense amounts of traffic, which should be good prep for what the company sees as a no-too-distant future where that ping number from last week could be for an hour, not a day, propelled by the spread of RSS as a distribution method beyond blogs.

http://www.paidcontent.org/

From AllAfrica.com

Kenya will next month host a global venture capital conference in Mombasa, it was announced yesterday.

The theme of the three-day conference, organised by Aureos Capital in conjunction with Venture Capital Association, is the role of institutional investment as a catalyst for development.

Venture capitalists provide interest free equity financing to businesses because they become partial owners of the business.

Their investments are spread between five and 10 years after which they look for exit mechanisms that do not harm the business.

This takes the form of private sale of shareholding or a public listing at the stock exchange.

Euros, a venture capital fund has invested in Brookside Dairies and Athi River Mining.

Addressing a media briefing in Nairobi, the AVCA Kenya Chapter initiative leader, Mr Davinder Sikand, said more than 250 local and international delegates will participate in the conference.

It will deliberate on possible avenues for broadening the resource base for venture capitalists as well as press for tax incentives that encourage corporate entities to use venture capital.

Venture capitalists want to market venture capital and private equity as an asset class for institutional investors.

Sikand said the Sh100 billion-pension industry could have a profound impact on the venture capital industry and on the economy at large if a portion of it is converted to private equity.

He cited the example of USA where one in every ten jobs is created by venture capital investment.

From Xinhuanet News

TOKYO, Oct. 1 (Xinhuanet) — Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. (MTFG) and UFJ Holdings Inc. merged on Saturday, creating Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (MUFJ), the world’s largest with total assets of 190 trillion yen (about 1.7 trillion US dollars).

    The new financial group also aims to become one of the top five global financial groups in terms of market capitalization by March 2009, the end of fiscal 2008.

    According to the Financial Services Agency, domestically in Japan, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. now ranks second with assets of 135 trillion yen, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. third with 100 trillion yen.

    With the integration of the two holdings firms, the number of Japan’s major banking groups was reduced from four to three. Some analysts say the launch of MUFG is the last phase of a series of mergers involving major banks, while others predict more mergers to come.

    Subsidiaries of MTFG and UFJ Holdings — Mitsubishi Trust and Banking Corp. and UFJ Trust Bank as well as Mitsubishi Securities Co. and UFJ Tsubasa Securities Co. — were also integrated the same day.

    The newly born trust bank is Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corp., and the merger between the two securities firms produced Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co.

    The merger of the two banking groups comes at a time when the Japanese economy has begun a full-fledged recovery, with the average daily balance of the nation’s bank lending growing for the first time since 1988 on a special-factor adjusted basis. Enditem

From PrimeZone

BioCurex, Inc. (Pink Sheets:BOCX), a biotechnology company, is pleased to announce it has formalized a relationship with J.P. Turner & Company, L.L.C. to assist the Company with market awareness and provide business advisory services. J.P. Turner, headquartered in Atlanta, is one of the nation’s fastest growing full service brokerage firms with over 120 offices from coast-to-coast. J.P. Turner will provide BioCurex with introductions to other broker dealers, research analysts, and investment companies that J.P. Turner believes could be helpful to the Company and its shareholders. Among other services that J.P. Turner will provide to BioCurex, Turner will assist the Company with the identification and evaluation of potential acquisition candidates. The engagement is for 12 months

Dr. Gerald Wittenberg, Director, stated: "Their breadth of services and geographic reach will support numerous opportunities for the Company. We are looking forward to their assistance and introductions to the financial community as we progress in our licensing efforts for our RECAF based blood tests and future imaging and therapeutic applications. We recognize the value of J.P. Turner and their experience in the support of our initiatives. Expanding our exposure in the investment community with a well-known corporation such as J.P. Turner will be of considerable value as we move forward to achieve our corporate goals."

(more…)