KCB Group confirmed that it had received consent to acquire 297,130,033 of the issued ordinary shares out of 338,781,200 issued ordinary shares, representing 87.7 percent by the offer closure date on August 30, 2019.
Joshua Oigara, the Chief executive said their next move will be to fully integrate NBK into KCB within the next 24 months.
“We will take several integration decisions including rationalization of our branch network in order to enhance service delivery to our customers. Additionally, we will examine the overall human resource needs to enable efficient business organization” said Oigara.
Paul Russo was announced as the designate Managing Director of the National Bank of Kenya for the transactional 2-year period of integration into KCB.
In the end, KCB Group will hold 1,432,130,033 ordinary shares comprising 97.17% of the total issued share capital of NBK. In addition, KCB will apply Capital Markets Authority provisions to compulsory acquire the remaining 41,651,167 issued ordinary shares of NBK and then proceed with the delisting of NBK from the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).
“We are thankful and excited for the goodwill and support we have received from the shareholders, our regulators, and all the other stakeholders. This is a good start as we get into full transition,” said Oigara.
With the acquisition, KCB will become the largest lender in the region in terms of numbers as well as assets. The bank owns banking subsidiaries in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan.
Currently, the Group has an asset base of Ksh 714.3 billion (USD 7.0 billion), the largest branch network in the region with 258 branches, 946 ATMs, 16,642 POS/Merchants and agents offering banking services on a 24/7 basis in East Africa.
