Equity Group Holdings is targeting to be a trillion shilling bank in the next two years.
Speaking during the Group’s 16th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday, Equity Bank Group CEO James Mwangi told the shareholders that their focus is ‘deepening their foothold’ from a horizontal to a vertical model.
He revealed that Equity Bank Group was at the tail end of completing the DR Congo commercial bank (BCDC) transaction.
‘’This will make us the largest bank in DRC in 18-24 months and help in the penetration of financial services currently at 10 percent,’’ Mwangi said.
Equity Group Holdings initiated the procedure to acquire the 66.53 per cent share, held by businessman George Forrest in the capital of the Congolese bank in November last year.
The NSE listed lender offered $105 million (Sh11.1 billion) for the transaction and plans to subsequently merge BCDC with its local subsidiary in the DRC, Equity Bank Congo S.A, once the operation is completed.
“We are slightly Sh800 billion. When the transaction is concluded, we shall be Sh200 billion shy to hit our trillion mark,” Mwangi said.
The announcement is coming just days after it terminated acquisition talks for Atlas Mara Limited’s (ATMA) banking units in Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Rwanda.
Kenya’s second-biggest bank by assets, reported a 14 per cent rise in 2019 profit after tax, helped by a jump in loans to customers.
The bank’s net interest income, mainly from loans and advances to customers, increased by 8.6 percent to Sh44.98 billion.
Despite the growth, the lender in May recalled Sh9.4 billion to shareholders, two months after the board announced an Sh2.50 dividend per share, being a 25 per cent rise from Sh2 paid the previous year.The bank was to pay the dividend on July 24 to shareholders on the register as of June 12.