According to the recently published peer review of leading players who belong to the same market segment in the banking industry, Pro-data placed Oceanic Bank ahead of in key growth indices.

According to Pro-data: "A summary of this peer review indicates that Oceanic Bank International Plc leads in virtually all performance indicators, including earnings, profits, deposits base and share price value. In all, the bank has successfully erased old growth records and set new ones, confirming the bank as one of the fastest growing in the industry with high potentials."

Oceanic Bank posted a 92.6 per cent growth in earnings at the end of its 2005 financial year,

The bank’s total deposits grew by 144 per cent to N186.7 billion. Aside the growth of its total assets plus contingencies to N281.14 billion, up by 167 per cent over the preceding year’s level, its turnover for the year also grew by 93 per cent to N24.3 billion, as against N12.6 billion of 2004 financial year. The bank’s returns on shareholders investment, in terms of dividend payout was also further enhanced and increased to N2.98 billion as against N1.5 billion of 2004. The dividend translated to 32 kobo per share as against N25 kobo that was paid in the preceding year. This reflects the confidence of the customers in the stability of the bank and also in its Board and Management.

Commenting on the value of Oceanic Bank’s stock, Pro-data noted that the bank based on the above is under-priced.

It said the bank’s price/earnings(P/E)ratio of 12.60 is quite competitive. P/E Ratio simply stated is the number of years, or how long an investor will have to wait to recover his investment in a stock, base on current earnings.

Based on the good performance of the bank so far and the fact that investors will have more to benefit in terms of returns on investment and capital appreciations, market analysts have predicted that the value of Oceanic Bank’s stock will hit N16 before the end of its 2006 financial year.