- Access Bank completes acquisition of Standard Chartered’s Angola, Sierra Leone subsidiaries
- The acquisition deal comes a year after the bank announced it
- Access Bank has been on an acquisition and expansion spree
Access Bank, the main subsidiary of Access Holdings Plc, has completed the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank Angola S.A. and Standard Chartered Bank (Sierra Leone) Limited.
The announcement of the acquisition was published on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) disclosure page and signed by the company secretary, Sunday Ekwochi, on Wednesday, November 27.
The holding company said, “Access Holdings Plc is pleased to announce that its flagship subsidiary, Access Bank Plc, has completed the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank Angola S.A. and Standard Chartered Bank (Sierra Leone) Limited.”
The company also disclosed that it is working to finalise the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank’s subsidiaries in Cameroon and The Gambia, as well as its consumer, private and business banking operations in Tanzania.
Commenting on the successful acquisition, the Managing Director/CEO of Access Bank Plc and CEO of the Banking Group, Roosevelt Ogbonna, said the deal will significantly improve the banks’s earnings and market share.
Ogbonna said, “We are pleased to have successfully concluded two important acquisitions in Angola and Sierra Leone.
“These transactions create synergies that enhance the quality of our earnings from both countries by significantly increasing our market share in corporate and SME banking.
“These combinations mark another pivotal step in realising our broader vision of becoming the world’s most respected African bank.”
Full acquisition comes a year after it was mooted
The announcement of the acquisition comes a year after Access Holdings Plc, on July 14, 2023, disclosed that Access Bank Plc had reached an agreement to acquire several of Standard Chartered’s sub-Saharan African subsidiaries.
This acquisition deal included Access Bank purchasing Standard Chartered’s stakes in subsidiaries based in Angola, Cameroon, Gambia and Sierra Leone, in addition to acquiring Standard Chartered’s consumer, private and business banking operations in Tanzania.
Access Bank is on an acquisition and expansion spree
Access Bank has been on an acquisition and expansion spree. The lender, in July 2023, acquired a 51 per cent majority equity stake in Finibanco Angola in its determined commitment to expand its presence in Africa.
Its acquisition tentacles include an 80 per cent stake in Uganda’s Finance Trust Bank, the full acquisition of the National Bank of Kenya and the purchase of the African Banking Corporation of Tanzania, which now operates as Access Bank Tanzania.
The company has also expanded its portfolio by merging with ARM Pensions Managers to form Access ARM Pensions, which is currently one of Nigeria’s largest pension administrators.
N500 million: Nigerians react as Access Bank, VeryDarkMan clash over alleged missing customer funds
Meanwhile, TheRadar reported that Access Bank and social media influencer, Martins Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, was embroiled in a war of words in the last few days over an alleged missing N500 million from a deceased Access Bank customer’s account.
Access Bank in its rebuttal to the allegation on Sunday, November 24, described the allegation as “baseless” and “untrue.”
