Bankelele
Nairobi writer on Banking, Finance, Technology, and Investments
Category Archives: Equatorial
Spire Bank Capital Injection
Spire Bank shareholders will hold an extraordinary general meeting at the end of November 207 to approve an increase in bank capital that has been eroded by recent losses at the bank.
At the November 27 EGM, shareholders will approve the creation of 100 million new shares, worth Kshs 500 million that will be allocated to Equatorial Commercial Holdings. Kenyan banks are to have a minimum core bank capital of Kshs 1 billion, and as at June 2017, Spire's capital was down to Kshs 1.6 billion and the bank had a half-year loss of Kshs 307 million coming on the back of a 2016 loss of Kshs 967 million. Spire had Kshs 13 billion assets, Kshs 6.4 billion loans, and Kshs 7.6 billion deposits as at June 2017. But interest income and total income at the half-year was sharply down from that in June 2016 which could point to their performance trend for the end of 2017.
In 2015, Mwalimu SACCO one of the country's largest credit societies bought out and rebranded the former Equatorial Commercial Bank as Spire. Equatorial had itself been formed from a merger between Southern Credit and Equatorial banks in 2010.
Mwalimu SACCO has Kshs 37 billion in assets and Kshs 3 billion profit in 2016 and has over 70,000 members as owners. This is the second bank capital injection by Mwalimu at Equatorial after another with the buyout. The shares will be allocated among Equatorial Commercial Holdings which owns 98% of Spire bank has shareholders including Mwalimu National Holdings (75%), Yana Towers (10%), A.H. Butt (8%), Yana Investments (6.75%, and who also own 11% of CBA) and N.N. Merali (0%).
This entry was posted in Basel II, CBK, Equatorial, SACCO, Spire on November 4, 2017 by bankelele.
Bank Mergers & Musical Chairs in 2016
There's a moratorium on new banks licences, but still a lot happening in the ownership suites.
Bank M (of Tanzania) has bought out and rebranded (the former) Oriental Commercial Bank.
Sidian Bank: Centum bought out and rebranded (the former) K-Rep bank.
Spire Bank: Mwalimu SACCO bought out and rebranded (the former) Equatorial Commercial bank.
Who's Hanging On
Chase bank now reopened, but yet to resume lending. An ownership decision is expected soon (process being managed by KCB)
Credit bank: Discussions are ongoing about a sale to FEP Holdings
Imperial bank (assets will be assessed and managed by NIC bank)
Who's on the Way Out
Dubai bank (proceeding into liquidation)
Giro bank which has been bought out by I&M bank.
edit The CFC brand as CFC Stanbic Bank and CFC Stanbic Holdings (i.e group) becomes Stanbic Bank Kenya and Stanbic Holdings PLC respectively – this comes about nine years after their merger of CFC and Stanbic banks.
This entry was posted in Chase Bank, Credit Bank, Dubai Bank, Equatorial, Imperial Bank, K-Rep, Oriental Bank, Southern Credit, tanzania on July 6, 2016 by bankelele.
Mwalimu SACCO acquires 51% of Equatorial Bank
EDIT: Jan 27: The Government has ordered an inquiry into Mwalimu National Sacco's bid to acquire Equatorial Commercial Bank. The Commissioner of Co-operatives has appointed an inquiry team report to him following a protest by the Co-operative Alliance of Kenya (CAK)
Last week, Mwalimu SACCO became the majority shareholder of Equatorial Commercial Bank (ECB), acquiring 51% of the bank for Kshs 1.6 billion (~$18 million). The acquisition was cleared after no objections were received from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) and Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA). There was another objection, but not from any of the regulators, who were aware of the issues raised.
Mwalimu with Kshs 24.5 billion of assets (2013), acquired the stake in ECB, the country's 27th largest bank (Kshs 15 billion) which has been boosted by an earlier merger with Southern Credit Bank. Mwalimu will have three (3) seats on the board of ECB, but the Society is not converting into a bank nor merging with ECB. Due diligence of the financial and legal processes was done by Ernst and Young and Mose & Mose Advocates.
This comes two years after the LAPTrust, a pension scheme and the Kenya Tea Development Agency acquired a combined 22% stake in Family Bank – and LAPTrust estimated their stake was worth 1.6 billion in 2013, just two years after paying a 1/4 of that amount.
This entry was posted in CBK, Equatorial, Family Finance, M&A, Mwalimu SACCO, SACCO on January 26, 2015 by bankelele.
Capitalization in Bank Mergers
Today should see the announcement of a merger between Southern Credit and Equatorial Commercial (ECB) banks.
They are both yet to release their full year results for 2009, (have until Thursday) but this will likely be a loss year for Southern (Kshs. – 145m in 9 months) ahead of the combination of the 32nd (Southern) and 35th (equatorial) ranked banks in Kenya with combined assets of about Kshs. 9.3 billion ($120 million) – but which were not growing as fast as their smaller peers in the competitive Kenyan market with 44 commercial banks.
The Nairobi Star today reports that the reason for the merger as the need for Southern Credit to raise their capital to the Kshs 1 billion mark after a deal with foreign investors had fallen through and this amount will be the combined capital size of both banks. The article further describes this as a takeover of Southern – a bank with structures but no capital by ECB – which is a bank with capital but no structures
Elsewhere, in the Market Whisperer [offline] column of last week's East African newspaper shoots down the justification behind a market rumour of Equity Bank's (valued at $787 million) interest in acquiring National Bank of Kenya (valued at $133 million) as two over-capitalized banks who don't need each other.
It notes that NBK which was restructured by the Kenya Government is in essence still a government banker beholden to government securities which account for majority of its income, rather than traditional lending while Equity is struggling to lend out its huge capital infusion and already has a (much) larger distribution and product range than NBK.
This entry was posted in Bank rankings, Basel II, Equatorial, Equity Bank, NBK, Southern Credit on March 29, 2010 by bankelele.
Bank Tales
(4) The Nairobi Star newspaper reports today that the ravenous Libyans are going to buy Equatorial Commercial Bank from Naushad Merali and other shareholders.
(3) T24 Rules: over a week ago KCB converted to the Temenos T24 banking system with some customers experiencing hitches – and next weekend it will be the turn of CBA to do the same.
(2) (Nairumor II) Minister(s) are itching to get licenses to open their own banks (hopefully not a return to the days of political banks)
(1) ( Nairumor I) that the Co-Operative Bank IPO will not be sold by all stockbrokers. Co-Op bank will do investor registration and most of the processing at their own (52) bank branches, with assistance from only a few brokers. That could be bad & painful news for stockbrokers as the low volumes traded and the depressed NSE this year have meant less than projected commissions & income.
This entry was posted in banking act, CBA, Co-op, Equatorial, KCB, Naushad Merali, NSE stockbrokers on October 27, 2008 by bankelele.
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Observations on banking, finance, investments, and life in Kenya by a Nairobi ex-banker
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