KCB’s acquisition of two banks in Rwanda and Tanzania has pushed its total asset base to over Ksh1 trillion ($10 billion), creating a regional banking giant with a re-energised ambition to join the ranks of leading pan-African banks, currently dominated by Southern and West African banks.
"This is a significant milestone and very historic positioning. You can only cross the Ksh1 trillion mark once. It is something we have been looking forward to but let me also qualify it that it is definitely not the limit for us," the Groups’ chief executive Joshua Oigara told The EastAfrican in an interview on Friday.
"We are still a medium-sized institution across the continent and we are relatively a small bank globally…we still have more opportunities and we will continue to see areas like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia as areas of focus for us."
Last year, KCB Group acquired the struggling state-owned National Bank of Kenya (NBK) and took over the good assets of Imperial Bank which was put under receivership by the Central Bank of Kenya on October 13, 2015.
Last week, KCB, which is listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), moved to strengthen its banking business in Rwanda and Tanzania by acquiring Banque Populaire du Rwanda Plc (BPR) and African Banking Corporation Tanzania (BancABC) currently owned by the Atlas Mara Ltd (ATMA).
The two parties signed an acquisition agreement for the two banks (BPR and BancABC) for Ksh4.37 billion ($43.7 million).
Under the deal, KCB will acquire 62.06 percent stake in BPR for Ksh3.5 billion ($35 million) and a 100 percent stake in BancABC for Ksh878 million ($8.78 million).
KCB’s total assets during the nine months to September 30 stood at Ksh972 billion ($9.72 billion) while the new acquisitions — BPR and BancABC — have a combined balance sheet of about Ksh42 billion ($420 million), bringing KCB’s total assets to Ksh1.01 trillion ($10.1 billion), with about 20 million customers.
The transaction is however subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals in the respective countries.
"Our expansion ambition is also taking Kenyan businesses overseas. It is giving our Kenyan shareholders and stakeholders an opportunity to take advantage of the emerging market opportunities within the East African region. These are very strong progressive actions we are taking … we are seeing the fruits of all our strategies being achieved in these transactions," said Mr Oigara.
Regional reach KCB currently operates in six countries — Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, […]