By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Top Nigerian lender, Access Bank Plc, is considering buying up another financial institution as part of its expansion plans, Bloomberg is reporting.
Earlier this year, the company completed the acquisition of a tier-2 bank in the country, Diamond Bank, as part of its drive to take control of the retail market and expand its presence there.
In a recent report by Bloomberg, Access Bank has been given the permission by the Competition Authority of Kenya to acquire 93.57 percent of Transnational Bank Limited, as consolidation in the East African nation’s banking industry gathers pace. Transnational lends mainly to the agricultural sector.
Kenya has more banks per person than South Africa and Nigeria, Africa’s two largest economies and this deal is expected to support the consolidation drive of the Central Bank of Kenya. The East African nation has more than 40 banks and a population of almost 50 million people.
In the past two years, SBM Holdings Limited of Mauritius bought up some of the assets of Chase Bank Kenya Limited and the entire capital of Fidelity Commercial Bank Limited.
The purchase of the controlling stakes of Transnational by Access Bank follows the merger of NIC Group Plc and Commercial Bank of Africa Limited, and KCB Group Limited’s acquisition of National Bank of Kenya Limited earlier this year.
With this, Access Bank joins other Nigerian lenders like Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Limited and United Bank of Africa (UBA) Plc in operating in the Kenyan market.
In its 2018 financial year, Transnational recorded a pre-tax loss of 98.5 million shillings ($951,690), while its non-performing loans rose to 58 percent to 1.85 billion shillings, with the loans rising by 0.5 percent to 6.63 billion shillings.
