14th July, 2023
Access Holdings Plc on Friday announced that its flagship subsidiary, Access Bank Plc and Standard Chartered Bank have entered into agreements relating to the acquisition of Standard Chartered’s majority shareholdings in its subsidiaries in Angola, Cameroon, The Gambia, and Sierra Leone, and its Consumer, Private and Business Banking business in Tanzania.
A statement issued by the Company Secretary, Sunday Ekwochi, said Access Bank has also entered into a definitive agreement for the acquisition of majority equity stake in African Banking Corporation (Tanzania) Limited.
BancABC Tanzania, a full-service commercial bank with over two decades of operations in Tanzania, is expected to consolidate the CPBB business onto its platform.
The statement said the transactions presented an opportunity for Access Bank to deepen its operations in existing and new countries of presence across Africa.
“In anticipation of completion of the Transactions Access Bank has made excellent progress in integration planning and will work in the coming months with Standard Chartered and BancABC Tanzania to ensure a seamless integration. The Transactions are expected to be completed over the next 12 months.
“Tanzania’s banking regulator has granted its approval in favour of the BancABC Tanzania acquisition and further regulatory approvals are anticipated in due course for the Transactions, including from the Central Bank of Nigeria,” the statement added
Roosevelt Ogbonna, Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, 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.
“Our 5-year growth plan will see us build a world-class payments gateway leveraging the power of technology and supported by a dynamic ecosystem of local and international partnerships, enabling us to serve global payments and remittances efficiently.
“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 ail business segments. More importantly, we are committed to impacting our host communities positively.”
Commenting on the Transactions, Dr. Herbert Wigwe, Group Chief Executive of Access Holdings said: “The Transactions mark a significant leap forward for Access Bank and reinforces our strategy of strengthening our footprint across Sub-Saharan Africa to harness synergistic opportunities for sustainable income diversification and profitability.
“We remain committed to our five-year strategy, which envisions our banking subsidiary emerging as a true leader in banking services across the African continent.”
Exotix Advisory acted as Financial Adviser while DLA Piper acted as Legal Adviser to Access Bank on the Standard Chartered transaction.