Equity Group to acquire 66% of Congolese bank

Equity Group Holdings (EGH) is on track to acquire a majority stake in the Banque Commercial du Congo.

On Monday, the bank reported its purchase agreement with one of the biggest shareholders at the Congolese bank.

”Equity Group Holdings, (EGH) has entered into a share purchase agreement with George Arthur Forrest, to purchase 66.53% of the shares held by Mr. Forrest in Banque Commercial du Congo (BCDC),” the statement reads.

The agreement however, is subject to the approval of the Central Banks in Kenya and Congo, the Common Markets for Eastern and Southern Africa(COMESA) competition commission and the boards of the two banks.

If these parties approve, the newly acquired bank will gradually be combined with Equity Bank Congo, the bank’s Congo subsidiary in an amalgamation.

The parent group will then pay a total sum of $105 million (Ksh. 10.7billion) for the 625,354 shares it will be acquiring at a price of $167.9 (about Ksh. 17,127) each.

The bank has already gotten approval to acquire the 7.6% share holding currently in the hands of Kreditanstalt Für Wiederaufbau (kfw), a German state-owned bank.

EGH Managing Director James Mwangi said: ‘It is a further step towards the delivery of its vision of building sub-Saharan Africa’s premier financial institution.”

According to him, the plan is to meet their goal of providing innovative products and services to clients particularly by employing technology.