Sanlam Group has sold an undisclosed amount of its stake in Sanlam Investments East Africa (SIEA), an asset management firm based in Kenya, for 730 million shillings to an undisclosed party.
This move comes less than two-years after Sanlam bought a 75 percent stake in the former PineBridge Investments East Africa for an undisclosed amount, after which it rebranded to Sanlam Investments East Africa.
Sanlam Investments East Africa currently manages an asset portfolio of over 200.0 billion shillings with a Money Market Fund size of 1.7 billion shillings as at 31st December 2019, ranking it as the 5th largest asset manager in Kenya in terms of assets under management for Money Market Funds.
Other similar transactions in the past include the sale of 90.9 percent stake in GenAfrica Asset Managers by the staff of GenAfrica Asset Managers, who held 17.5 percent stake, and Centum Investments, who held 73.4 percent stake, to Kuramo Capital in March 2018 and the acquisition of 100.0 percent stake of ApexAfrica Capital by Axis a Mauritian private equity fund in 2015 for 470.0 million shillings.
This announcement came just as the Liberty Group, a South African insurance firm, put on sale its Kenyan investment advisory business, Stanlib, a move informed by Liberty’s plan to exit its asset management operations in Kenya and Botswana, citing low historical returns, competition and political risks in their respective markets.
In spite of this, there has been positive traction in the financial services sector in Kenya, this being the second time we have had an acquisition in the financial services sector in Kenya this year, with AfricInvest and Catalyst Principal Partners acquiring a minority stake in Prime Bank Kenya, in addition to the 10 acquisitions in 2018.
“We expect to see more activity in the financial services sector this year, given the growth of financial inclusion and regulation that require institutions to increase their capital requirements across the sector consequently providing an opportunity for mergers and acquisitions,” said analysts from Cytonn Investments.