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SSA news through Sept. 5

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SSA news through Sept. 5

EAST AFRICA

* KCB Group PLC's group director of regional businesses, Paul Russo, will replace Wilfred Musau as managing director of National Bank of Kenya Ltd., Standard Digital reported. Russo will head NBK in the two-year transition period during which the bank will be integrated into KCB.

* KCB Group and Co-operative Bank of Kenya Ltd. are among eight Kenyan banks that pledged roughly 1 billion shillings combined for stakes at Kenya Mortgage Refinance Co., Business Daily Africa reported. KCB and Co-operative Bank of Kenya will acquire stakes of 25.3% and 8.4% in KMRC for 600 million shillings and 200 million shillings, respectively.

* Kenya-based Equity Group Holdings PLC appointed John Wilson COO, replacing Bhartesh Shah, who will become the group's director for digitization, virtualization, analytics and artificial intelligence, Business Daily Africa reported.

* Ecobank Kenya Ltd. brought down its nonperforming loans to 3 billion shillings in the first half from 8.1 billion shillings in the same period a year ago through recovery and restructuring, Business Daily Africa wrote.

* Stanbic Bank Kenya Ltd. CEO Charles Mudiwa said the lender laid off 88 employees under its voluntary early retirement scheme aimed at cutting payroll costs, Business Daily Africa reported.

* The board of Kenya's Capital Markets Authority has begun the search for the successor of CEO Paul Muthaura, whose term at the regulator ends this year, Capital FM reported.

* The Association of Kenya Insurers developed a digital motor insurance certificate, saying the move will reduce fraud in the industry by ensuring that only one certificate is issued per vehicle, Daily Nation wrote.

* Bank of Kigali CEO Diane Karusisi said the Rwanda-based lender expects to reduce its nonperforming loans ratio to below 5% by the end of 2019 after the ratio increased to 6.4% in the first half, Reuters reported. The lender's first half pretax profit declined 3% year over year to 21.5 billion Rwandan francs.

WEST AFRICA

* Nigeria's Zenith Bank PLC set out an offer to holders of its 7.375% $500 million bonds, due 2022, to tender their notes for cash.

* Nigeria-based United Bank for Africa PLC reported first half group profit attributable to owners of the parent of 55.30 billion naira, up from 42.19 billion naira a year ago.

* Nigeria's central bank set out requirements for the establishment of special purpose vehicles by development finance institutions, following requests from the companies for special regulatory approvals.

* The Ghanaian central bank ordered banks and specialized deposit-taking institutions to require full personal details of individuals making deposits or withdrawals from accounts not belonging to them, Joy Online wrote.

SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL AFRICA

* FirstRand Ltd. reported normalized earnings attributable to ordinary equity holders of 27.89 billion South African rand under IFRS 9 for the fiscal year ended June 30, up 6% from 26.41 billion rand under IAS 39 in the same period in 2018.

* Sasfin Holdings Ltd. said it expects headline EPS for the year ended June 30 to increase between 28% and 33% to between 490 South African cents and 509 cents from the year-ago 381 cents.

* Vox Telecom Ltd shareholders agreed to buy out co-investor Investec Ltd. in line with the company's 2 billion rand recapitalization, Bloomberg News reported. Included in the transaction are Vox's management, as well as shareholders Metier Private Equity Ltd. and FirstRand unit Rand Merchant Bank.

* South African insurer Discovery Ltd. warned that it expects its normalized headline EPS to decrease year over year by between 5% and 10% for the financial year ended June 30.

* Sanlam Ltd. expects new business growth in emerging markets outside of South Africa to remain strong, supported by the base effect of its acquisition of Moroccan unit Saham Finances SA, as it reported a year-over-year drop in first half profit to 4.12 billion rand from 5.55 billion rand. CEO Ian Kirk told Reuters that the South African insurer could invest in Egypt within one year and is currently looking at several companies for potential acquisitions.

* South African insurer Momentum Metropolitan Holdings Ltd. said the group will likely achieve the lower end of its target range of 3.6 billion rand to 4.0 billion rand by the 2021 financial year if the current economic outlook persists.

* Old Mutual Ltd. announced a 2.4 billion rand share repurchase program as it reported a 10% rise in first-half earnings. Meanwhile, NMT Capital (Pty) Ltd. Chair Sango Ntsaluba accused Old Mutual of hampering the separation process between the two companies, Business Day reported.

* A consortium led by South African financial services company Vunani Ltd. agreed to acquire all the shares of Botswana-based Stanlib Investment Management Services Pty. Ltd. from Liberty Holdings Botswana (Pty) Ltd. Vunani Capital (Pty.) Ltd. Vunani Capital (Pty.) Ltd., the investment arm of Vunani, owns 60% of the consortium while the local citizens of Botswana hold the remaining stake.

* Zimbabwean Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told Reuters that the government aims to begin discussions in early 2020 on clearing arrears on the country's international debt.

* Angola's Banco Comercial do Huambo SA opened its first representative office overseas in the Portuguese city of Porto after receiving central bank approval in July, Jornal de Negócios reported.

* The International Finance Corp. extended an additional $50 million loan to Angola's Banco de Negócios Internacional SA under a previous credit line aimed at boosting financing to local businesses, Angop reported.

* Mozambique's central bank lowered the reserve requirements for local currency deposits by 1 percentage point to 13% in a move aimed at boosting bank lending, O País reported.

* Mozambique's government is appealing to the U.K. High Court of Justice to order Swiss bank Credit Suisse Group AG, shipbuilder Privinvest and others to share responsibility for the repayment of a $727 million eurobond that it is restructuring, according to a document sent to bondholders and seen by Bloomberg News.

* African Export-Import Bank granted a $10 million loan to Democratic Republic of Congo-based Sofibanque SA Inc. to assist it in meeting international compliance requirements and developing correspondent relationships, according to Financial Afrik.

Pádraig Belton and Helen Popper contributed to this report.

This S&P Global Market Intelligence news article may contain information about credit ratings issued by S&P Global Ratings. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings.