Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Plc plans to acquire a Kenyan lender as part of its expansion on the continent, according to the managing director, Bloomberg reported.

This was disclosed at an investor call in Lagos by the lender’s Chief Executive Officer, Segun Agbaje. “I think the place we will still like to do business or do an acquisition is Kenya,”, he stated without giving a time-line for the acquisition.

GTB announced in November it had received an approval-in-principle from the Central Bank of Nigeria to transition to a holding company by way of a scheme of merger between the lender and its shareholders.

The move will see it tow the path of rival FBN Holdings and Stanbic IBTC Holdings.

The Holdco structure will enable a new corporate group known as a parent company to hold the outstanding stock of the companies making up the group while maintaining only oversight capacities over them without participating in the day-to-day running of the companies.

Banks in Africa’s most populous country are expanding on the continent and diversifying outside their core operations as they seek to grow after the coronavirus pandemic and two economic contractions in four years shuttered businesses and limited lending opportunities at home.

Guaranty Trust is expecting the approval by regulators of a move to transition into a financial holding company in the second half, which will enable it to start payments and asset management units, Agbaje said. It targets 10% growth in the loan book this year and pre-tax profit of 243 billion naira from 238.1 billion naira.

SOURCE:https://brandspurng.com/2021/03/23/gtbank-plans-kenyan-acquisition/