Business
Fidelity Bank With Sh.217B Assets Base Acquired By SBM Holding Group of Mauritius
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has been advised by both SBM Holdings Limited (SBM Group) of Mauritius and Fidelity Commercial Bank Limited (FCBL) of SBM Group’s intention to acquire FCBL. The proposed acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approvals in Kenya and Mauritius, will mark the entry of SBM Group into Kenya’s banking sector.
Fidelity Commercial Bank Ltd. (FCBL) commenced operations as a non-bank financial institution in June 1992, and converted into a commercial bank in April 1996. It was ranked 31 of 41 banks in terms of market share as at December 31, 2015, with a share of 0.39 percent and fourteen branches around the country. SBM Group is the second largest company listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius.
As at September 30, 2016, it had an asset base of about Ksh.417 billion (US$4.2 billion). SBM Group’s banking arm, SBM Bank (Mauritius) Ltd., is a leading bank in Mauritius with an international footprint in India, Madagascar, and a representative office in Myanmar. SBM Group will bring its experience and expertise from Mauritius and other markets, to enhance competitiveness and the resilience of Kenya’s banking sector. SBM Group is pursuing an international expansion strategy, and for the African region, it is anchored on Kenya as the entry point for Eastern Africa.
The transaction is expected to be completed by December 31, 2016, and further updates will be provided as the transaction progresses. Analysts say rising bad debts, the capping of commercial lending rates and weaknesses in corporate governance exposed by the collapse of two lenders in the past year and a half, have made the Kenyan banking sector ripe for consolidation.
Fidelity Bank was also a victim of now common panic messages on social media. Earlier in the year, the bank was hit with rumours that the bank would be put under statutory management and this may have caused anxiety for stakeholders and customers. Then Central Bank’s assurance that the bank is not going under statutory management gave them reprieve. This new arrangement however stamps that the bank had stability issues .
Kenya Insights allows guest blogging, if you want to be published on Kenya’s most authoritative and accurate blog, have an expose, news TIPS, story angles, human interest stories, drop us an email on [email protected] or via Telegram
I Will Bribe Every Judge in Town- MP Jack Wamboka
KNH ON THE BRINK: How Corruption, Revenue Plunder and State Neglect Are Destroying Kenya’s Flagship Hospital
Receivers In TransCentury Sh6B KRA Tax Arrears Are Biased And Must Be Removed, COFEK Claims
The Man Behind the Badge: How Prof. Erastus Kanga Turned Kenya’s Premier Wildlife Agency into a Theatre of Corruption, Fear and Impunity
How Little Known KwikBet Leveraged Stolen Kenyans Data To Build Its Empire
The Jaffer’s : How The Fuel Scandal Exposed The Sons Who Poisoned Kenya’s Fuel Tanks
THE FIXER IN THE FILE ROOM: How Parliamentary Health Committee Clerk Adan Gindicha Cleared Mediheal Hospital of Organ Harvesting Claims Despite Mounting Evidence
Nairobi Freezes Binance Accounts in Sweeping Anti-Fraud Crackdown as Global Scandal Record Haunts World’s Largest Crypto Exchange
EXCLUSIVE: Odibets Bought Stolen Data From Millions Of Kenyans
Taiwan President Cancels Trip After African Countries Close Airspace
Forged Legacy: How Kaplan and Stratton’s Peter Gachuhi Is Accused of Faking a Top AG’s Will as State Claims Damning Evidence
Sold And Abandoned: How Diageo and Asahi Are Locking Kenya’s EABL Minority Shareholders Out Of East Africa’s Biggest Corporate Heist
Inside Details Of Sh78 Billion Fraud in KPC’s Mombasa-Nairobi Line 5 Pipeline Project That Has Continued To Bleed The Country
Poison at the Pump: How Kenya’s Fuel Marking System May Be Exposing Millions to Cancer-Causing Chemicals
THE HANDSHAKE THAT BECAME A NOOSE: How Tuju’s Alleged Intimate Access to EADB’s Yeda Apopo Produced a Sh294 Million Deal With No Written Contract, and Why That Trust Destroyed an Empire
How Firm Linked To Mombasa Tycoon Jaffer Was Allowed To Import Fuel At Bloated Price And Set To Make Billions In Profits From Iranian War Crisis In Kenya
THE ZAKHEM-ECOBANK MACHINE: How Kenya’s Courts Were Weaponised to Drain a State Corporation of Over KES 78 Billion
The Lawyer at the Centre of Kenya’s State Machine: Eric Gumbo, the AG’s Bypassed Office, and the Half-Billion-Shilling Question
The Teflon Company: How Gulf Energy’s Insiders Built Billions on Kenya’s Fuel, and Walked Away Clean
The Debt They Would Not Pay: How Standard Group Ducked Sh50 Million In Regulatory Fee For Years, Then Called It A Witch-Hunt
-
Business1 week agoKenyan Motorists Stare At Possible Engine Damage And Heavy Losses As Report Confirms Substandard Fuel In Circulation
-
Business1 week agoTHE FUEL CABAL: How Mohamed Jaffer, a KPC Insider, and a Ministry Official Are Alleged to Have Manufactured Kenya’s Worst Petroleum Crisis in Three Years, While Kenyans Burned
-
Business1 week agoGetting Away With It: How Kenya’s Most Politically Connected Fuel Company Gulf Energy Is Pocketing Billions While Rival Firms Face Public Wrath
-
Business2 weeks agoHow Safaricom Could Sell You Out To KRA
-
News2 weeks agoThe Kewota Racket: How Kenya’s Female Teachers Are Being Bled Dry
-
Business1 week agoSugar Empire in the Dock: How Kibos’s Mombasa Refinery Landed 1,481 Phantom Tonnes at the Port — and Why Nine Government Agencies Are Now Watching Its Every Move
-
Business6 days agoTotalEnergies Moves to Sue TikToker for Sh10 Million Over Contaminated Fuel Claim as Kenya’s Petroleum Sector Burns
-
Investigations1 day agoThe Jaffer’s : How The Fuel Scandal Exposed The Sons Who Poisoned Kenya’s Fuel Tanks