NBK Jumps Back To Profitability Ahead of Share Swap Deadline

Today, Friday, 30^th of August marks the last day for shareholders in National Bank of Kenya (NBK) to swap their shares with those on the KCB Group as KCB moves to complete the deal to acquire 100 percent of NBK.

For those used to seeing NBK trading at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), today, Friday, marks its last day to trade as the share swap deadline nears at 5 pm.

In a surprise turn of events, National Bank of Kenya has emerged out of the woods into profitability for the first 6 months of 2019 to June.

During the 6-month period, National Bank posted 150 million shillings in net profits from a loss of 282.7 million shillings at the same time in 2018.

The increase in earnings by 19 percent according to NBK was on account of increased income to 3.13 billion shillings from 2.61 billion shillings in 2018 on the back of government securities as well as loans and advances.

Operating expenses of the lender increased by 5.8 percent to 3.7 billion shillings mainly on account of staff costs which swelled 9.6 percent to 2.07 billion shillings. Non-Interest income, on the other hand, went down to 752.4 million shillings from 1.05 billion shillings in 2018.

Deposits from customers dropped by 4.67 billion shillings to 91.33 billion shillings from 95.99 billion shillings. Loans and advances to customers dropped by 446.3 million shillings to 47.3 billion shillings when compared to last year’s six-month position of 47.8 billion shillings.

The National Bank is set to be delisted from the Nairobi Securities Exchange by the end of next month as the takeover bid by KCB enters the home stretch. Members of Parliament had registered concerns over the takeover saying the deal worked in favor of KCB Group and not NBK.

10 shares in NBK will give an investor 1 share in KCB Group.