STL Trustees unveils Holding Group, consolidates Trusteeship, Asset Management, Advisory Businesses

STL Trustees Limited(STL) has formally unveiled its new group structure, bringing together its trusteeship, asset management, and capital &advisory businesses under one umbrella as the financial services firm moves to deepen its presence across Nigeria’s capital market.

Speaking at the formal unveiling of STL Capital Group, the Managing Director, STL Trustees Limited, Funmi Ekundayo, said the restructuring was aimed at creating greater value for clients by bringing the diverse capabilities of the company and its affiliates together on a single platform.

Ekundayo said the new structure would enable STL to offer a broader range of solutions, covering corporate trusteeship, wealth preservation, estate and succession planning, investment management, capital raising and financial advisory services.

“We are proud to announce a group structure that brings together our trusteeship, asset management, and capital &advisory capabilities, creating a broader platform through which we can serve our existing and prospective clients better,” she said.

She explained that the unveiling of the holding group structure followed approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), enabling the businesses to operate within a Capital Market Holding Company framework while retaining the regulatory boundaries of each subsidiary.

According to her, the move was also driven by the emerging opportunities in Nigeria’s capital market as businesses increasingly seek funding to expand their operations, strengthen working capital and take advantage of new investment opportunities.

She traced the group’s evolution to STL Trustees’ more than three decades of operations in the Nigerian Capital Market and financial services ecosystem, noting that the company’s transactional experience and pedigree as a top-tier Trustee Company provided the foundation for its expansion.

Consequently, the asset management business was established to take advantage of opportunities in investment management, while STL Capital &Advisory was created to deepen the group’s presence in issuing house and capital-raising activities.

Ekundayo said the asset management business had recorded significant growth within four years, while STL Capital and Advisory, which is about three years old, had already executed a number of impactful transactions.

“We see a very bright future with all the three businesses, and even a better opportunity to further evolve beyond the existing subsidiaries,” she said.

For the group, she said, the objective was not simply to bring three businesses under one structure, but to make it easier for clients to access the different capabilities within the group.

The Executive Director, STL Trustees, Akinwumi Oni, said the new structure would enablethe group to respond more effectively to the opportunities created by changes in the Nigerian economy and financial markets.

“So, this is a time for us to take advantage of the opportunities, and we possessthe requisite expertise to help our clients achieve their objectives including but not limited to scaling their businesses, bond issuances and setting up private Trust structures,” Oni said.

One of the key areas where the group sees significant potential is asset management, particularly as economic growth creates a need for better mechanisms to build, preserve and transfer wealth.

The Managing Director, STL Asset Management Limited, Ahmed Olaitan Banu, said asset management was central to the group’s growth strategy and also closely connected to the broader development of the capital market.

He pointed to Nigeria’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy, saying economic expansion would ultimately have to translate into greater wealth creation and more sophisticated wealth management.

According to him, wealth managers play an important role in the capital-raising process because they are ultimately responsible for deploying the funds of individuals, organisations and other entities into businesses seeking capital.

“When we talk about capital, it is ultimately the wealth managers, individuals, organisations and entities that have wealth that invest in and support those businesses to raise capital,” he said.

Banu said the role of asset management also extended beyond investment returns to the preservation and transfer of wealth across generations.

He noted that clients who establish trusts and seek to transfer their wealth to the next generation require structures that can manage those assets over time.

“That speaks to the synergy we see within the group,” he said, explaining that asset management effectively supports both sides of the business by helping clients grow and preserve wealth while also providing capital to businesses seeking to expand.

Ekundayo said the integrated structure would ultimately position STL as a preferred counterparty for clients looking to preserve wealth, structure succession plans, invest funds or raise capital.

She stressed that the business expansion would be built around the trust, professionalism and topnotch service delivery for which the STL brand has been reputed over the years.

“Legacy and innovation should actually coexist,” she said, adding that the company’s history would serve as a springboard for continued innovation.

She said STL Trustees’ ability to adapt to successive changes in the market had contributed to its longevity and continued relevance, while the new group structure would provide the platform to respond to increasingly more sophisticated clients and more complex/evolving capital market transactions.

Looking ahead, Ekundayo said the immediate focus was to give clients access to more opportunities and solutions within the STL ecosystem, while the longer-term ambition was to position STL Capital Group among Nigeria’s top 10 players in the capital market and financial services ecosystem.

She noted that STL Trustees had consistently maintained a top three position in the trusteeship industry for more than a decade, adding that the group now hoped to replicate that competitiveness at a broader market level.