By Skye Wheeler JUBA, Sudan, July 4 (Reuters) - South Sudan has spent $9.5 million to bail out the autonomous region's biggest bank, privately owned Nile Commercial Bank Plc, after an ambitious expansion forced a restructuring. NCB has received around 15 million Sudanese pounds ($7.5 million) from the south's central bank and 4 million ($2 million) from the government to save it, said NCB Operations Manager Samson Arap Ephraim. "We lent a lot of money to the public -- around 15 million Sudanese pounds -- and to state government, which basically bankrupted us," said Ephraim. He added that NCB had also incurred costs it could not afford to set up 23 branches across the south. A north-south Sudan peace agreement signed in 2005 ended more than 20 years of war. Since then the largely underdeveloped south has been struggling to provide services, including banking, for the first time in many areas. Under the deal, the mostly Muslim north continues its Islamic banking system while the south adopts conventional banking. NCB's 100,000 shares are currently owned by Sudanese and international individuals and companies, said Ephraim. But the bank expects government investment in the institution soon. "The government as of now has not entered officially but has promised to take 60 percent of the shares," he said. He added that some government loans would later be converted into shares in the unlisted bank. SPLM SHAREHOLDERS Ephraim said members of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) had been shareholders in the bank from its inception, when the SPLM was still a rebel group prior to the January 2005 peace deal. The SPLM now dominates the semi-autonomous southern government and parliament. NCB's chief executive director was fired in mid-June because he opened branches against the advice of the south's central bank. "(We) incurred considerable expenses, (and) these costs have to be approved by the Bank of Southern Sudan," said Ephraim. Ephraim estimated the bank's capital to be around 20 million pounds ($10 million). Shares are currently being sold for $100 each. "(But) the issue of capital has to be readdressed. It might go up to 100 million pounds soon," said the manager, who added that there were worries that some investors might try to take a majority of the capital and monopolize the bank. "So we have to raise the status of the capital, so we have enough shares for everybody," he added. The NCB is the biggest of two south Sudanese banks. The Kenyan Commercial Bank and several northern Sudanese banks also operate in major southern towns.
