The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has given Access Bank the go ahead to acquired 100% of Kenya’s Transnational Bank Plc and its 28 branches.
The acquisition was disclosed in a statement issue by the country’s apex bank.
“Access Bank Plc’s business model mainly focuses on corporate and retail banking and its strong group support is expected to drive Transnational Bank Plc’s business growth for the benefit of the Kenyan economy and the banking sector.” the Kenyan bank regulator, CBK, said in a statement
The journey of acquisition began in October 2019 when the Bank made an audacious move to expand its frontiers across Africa. The bank, which is the largest in Nigeria by customer-size, had embarked on this path seven months after merging with another Nigerian bank, Diamond Bank.
Nairametrics reports that 100% of the shareholding of Transnational Bank will become that of Access Bank from February 1, 2020, after receiving approval on December 24, 2019, for the acquisition.
CBK said the acquisition was expected to strengthen the resilience of Kenya’s banking sector, which has been opened to merger and acquisition of various banks. The country has recorded merger between NIC Group Plc and Commercial Bank of Africa Limited, and KCB Group Limited’s acquisition of National Bank of Kenya Limited.
Kenya’s Central Bank has been pushing for a merger between the country’s banks because it has more banks per person than South Africa and Nigeria. Kenya has a population of 50 million with about 40 banks. The drive for consolidation had led SBM Holdings Ltd of Mauritius to acquire some of the assets of Chase Bank Kenya Limited and the entire capital of Fidelity Commercial Bank Limited.
With this move by Access Bank, it now has operation in Kenya like its Nigerian counterparts, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) and United Bank of Africa (UBA).
Nairametrics