Standard Chartered has announced it is completing a deal to sell its subsidiaries in sub-Saharan Africa to Nigeria’s Access Bank.
The bank says it is selling its shareholding in its subsidiaries in Angola, Cameroon, Gambia and Sierra Leone to the Nigerian banking giant. It will also sell its consumer, private & business banking business in Tanzania to Access Bank.
Access Bank confirmed the deal in a regulatory filing Friday. The announcement came a day after Access announced its acquisition of Angola’s Finibanco.
The deal is a follow up to Standard Chartered’s last year plan to divest businesses and exit seven countries in Africa and the Middle East as it seeks to improve profits by focusing on faster-growing markets in the region.
According to the statement signed by Sunil Kaushal, Standard Chartered’s regional CEO for Africa and the Middle East, “Access Bank will provide a full range of banking services and continuity for key stakeholders including employees and clients of Standard Chartered’s businesses across the five aforementioned countries”.
The sale aligns with Standard Chartered’s global plan “aimed at achieving operational efficiencies, reducing complexity, and driving scale,” the statement said.
Standard Chartered says the sale will help it mop up funds in the exited countries to focus on other areas with significant growth potential.
The statement said the deal would help Access “build a strong global franchise focused on serving as a gateway for payments, investment, and trade within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world”.
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Access Bank said, “With our recent European expansion and our deepened presence in key trading corridors across Africa, we will bridge the gap between cross-border and domestic transfers across all business segments,” its Group Managing Director Roosevelt Ogbonna said in the statement.
In its notice to the Nigeria Exchange, Access Bank said: “For Access Bank, these transactions represent a key step in our journey to build a strong global franchise focused on serving as a gateway for payments, investment and trade within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world as we continue to deliver on our vision to be the world’s most respected African bank.”
The worth of the deal is yet to be disclosed and is subject to regulatory approvals in each of the countries as well as in Nigeria.
The full acquisition is expected to be completed by the next year.
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