Consolidation in Kenya’s Banking Sector Set to Continue

The pace of consolidation in the banking sector has picked up and is likely to continue as banks merge to form strategic partnerships, leading to the acquisition of struggling banks especially those that do not serve a niche thus resulting to a more stable and safer banking sector.

With acquisitions currently happening at cheaper valuations to historical levels, well-capitalized players are expected to take advantage and ensuring that several deals are completed, according to Cytonn Investments’ weekly report themed ‘Consolidation in Kenya’s Banking Sector to Continue’.

Over the last 8-years, there have been various consolidation activities in the banking sector, as banks either acquire smaller banks or merge and form strategic partnerships with other banks to form relatively larger companies.

Consolidation activity has picked up in the recent past as smaller banks that have struggled to operate under the interest rate cap regime are acquired by their larger counterparts, while some of the banks have been forming strategic partnerships.

Some of the consolidation activity has also been driven by remediation of collapsed banks that had been under receiverships, such as Imperial Bank Ltd, and Chase Bank Ltd.

Two deals are already in the pipeline in 2019, with Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) issuing a cash buy-out offer of 1.4 billion shillings to Jamii Bora Bank and CBA and NIC Group issuing a merger notice.

Types of Consolidation Arrangements and the Impact

The term consolidation is loosely used to describe the combination of company assets and possibly even the liabilities, through various types of financial transactions. Key examples include

Mergers

A merger is an agreement that combines two existing separate companies into one new entity. Most mergers are done to gain market share in the industry, leverage on the economies of scale to reduce costs of operations, use the relatively larger capital base to expand to new territories or product lines, unite common products, with all of these aimed at obtaining a competitive advantage, and ensuring sustainable growth.

After a merger, issued shares of the new company are distributed to existing shareholders of both original businesses in pre-agreed proportions. For example, the transaction between the NIC Group and CBA is a merger.

Acquisitions

An acquisition is a transaction where one company purchases a majority (more than 50 percent) or (in some instances) all of another company’s shares in order to take control.

As part of the exchange, the acquiring company often purchases the target company’s equity, which allows the acquiring company to make decisions regarding the use of the newly acquired assets with/without the approval of the target company’s shareholders owing to the majority holding in the target company.

Companies often acquire other companies when they intend to achieve quick inorganic growth, which may be more attainable and does not pose any additional inefficiencies and logistic constraints that may arise from organic growth. For example, SBM Bank Kenya’s acquisition of Chase Bank Ltd.

Tender Offers

Tender offer refers to when one company offers to purchase the equity directly from the shareholders of the target company, often at a premium, bypassing the target company’s board of directors and management.

Tender offers are particularly common in listed companies where the acquiring company issues a takeover bid, subject to the approval of the target company’s shareholders. If there are no dissenting shareholders, tender offers have often resulted in acquisitions.

Management Acquisitions

Management acquisitions refer to transactions where a company’s management team purchases the assets and consequently the operations of the company they manage. In this type of transaction, the management team pools resources, and acquire a stake or even the entire company. The management may use their own individual financial resources or seek backing from external financiers such as private equity financiers, and financial institutions.

 Recent Consolidation in Kenya

In the recent past, consolidation has picked up in Kenya’s banking sector, as the relatively smaller banks become acquired by larger banks while relatively larger banks merge and form partnerships. 

The acquisitions have picked up, as the smaller tier 2 and tier 3 banks have found it difficult to operate in Kenya due to: