Shareholders of Mozambican bank Moza decided to approve a capital increase in the amount of 8.17 billion meticais (about US$116 million), according to a statement issued on Monday at the end of a General Meeting.

The statement said that the General Meeting had as only one point to deliberate, that was the proposal to increase the capital of the institution, and the meeting was part of the schedule of the bank’s capitalisation process that had been drawn up by the Bank of Mozambique when it intervened in the bank’s operations.

The statement concludes by saying that the next step will be the underwriting process and realisation of the capital increase approved on Monday.

The Bank of Mozambique decided in September 2016 to suspend the members of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Moza due to deterioration in the financial condition of the bank, whose solvency ratio had fallen below the required minimum.

In December 2016 the Bank of Mozambique said it had capitalised Moza with 8 billion meticais (US$111 million), “to prevent the collapse of the Mozambican financial system.”

The Governor of the Bank of Mozambique, Rogerio Zandamela said at the time that “if he had not capitalised Moza Banco we would have had an earthquake, a tidal wave, because there would be an unprecedented rush of depositors and creditors.”

Moza (formerly known as Moza Banco), which started operations in 2008, is controlled 51% by Moçambique Capitais and the remaining 49% held by Portugal’s Novo Banco, a bank that inherited the healthy assets of bankrupt bank Banco Espírito Santo. (macauhub)