Stanbic Uganda – Business Profile

Stanbic Bank Uganda is part of Africa’s leading banking and financial services group Standard Bank.

The Bank was founded in Uganda as the National Bank of India in 1906, which after several name changes became Grindlays Bank. When the Standard Bank Group bought the Grindlays network in Africa it also in October 1993, re-established a presence in Uganda as Stanbic Bank.

In February 2002, Standard Bank Group through its investment arm bought 90% of shares in Uganda Commercial Bank, a largely retail government-owned bank that operated a countrywide network consisting of 67 branches. The rest of the 10% shares remained under Uganda government ownership.

The recent Stanbic Bank Initial Public Offer was in line with the objectives of the Government’s divestiture programme, that seeks to remove state participation in the ownership of a variety of companies. The Initial Public Offer of Ug Shs 1,023,773 394 shares amounting to 20% of the shares of the company was as a result of an agreement between the government of Uganda and the Standard Bank Group of South Africa.

The objectives of the offer and listing were to enable the Ugandan public to participate in the equity of Stanbic Bank and to encourage wider ownership of shares in general. It also provided individuals, institutional investors and other interested parties with an opportunity to participate in the equity of Stanbic Bank and to provide a market for the shareholders to realise their investment in Stanbic Bank. The response was phenomenal with 37,449 applications for 3 billion shares totaling U Shs 211 billion hence a 200% oversubscription.

Stanbic Bank shares are now traded on the Uganda Stock Exchange.

Stanbic operates 71 points of representation and a growing ATM network currently numbering 111. The Bank is located all over Uganda with Stanbic Bank’s head office in Kampala from where its business and support functions operate.

Stanbic Bank is the largest financial institution in Uganda licensed under the Financial Institutions’ Act, 2004 and is listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange Limited effective January, 25 2007.