Big win for Nedbank in deal to buy one of Africa’s largest banks for R13.9 billion
Nedbank has received regulatory approval for its bid to acquire a majority stake in Kenya’s NCBA Group, a deal valued at around R13.9 billion.
NCBA is one of East Africa’s largest financial services groups, and, if approved, will become a subsidiary of Nedbank.
NCBA has 122 branches and serves over 60 million customers, making it the largest banking group in Africa by customer numbers.
The deal would see Nedbank acquire around 66% of the group, with the remaning 34% of NCBA shares trading publicly on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).
The total purchase consideration for the deal stands at around R13.9 billion, which is based on the Nedbank issue price of R250.00 per share.
The deal will be structured as a 20% cash portion and 80% new Nedbank ordinary shares listed on the JSE.
“Nedbank has a strategic objective to grow and diversify outside of its core Southern Africa market, and we identified East Africa as a key growth region,” said Nedbank CEO Jason Quinn when the deal was announced.
“We are therefore excited to partner with a strong and leading financial services firm such as NCBA to deliver on our growth ambitions.”
Nedbank said that the deal was conditional upon obtaining an exemption from the Kenyan Capital Markets Authority (CMA).
The exemption would apply to the requirement for Nedbank to extend a mandatory takeover offer for 100% of the NCBA Shares under Kenya’s Capital Markets Regulations.
Nedbank needed to acquire the exemption by 31 May 2026.
Failing which, this condition of the exemption would be waived by Nedbank, and the offer would convert to an alternative offer for 100% of all NCBA Shares.
Nedbank has now advised shareholders that the CMA granted the exemption, thereby fulfilling the deal condition and allowing it to acquire just 66%.
The offer is still subject to the remaining conditions of the waiver, but many NCBA shareholders have already agreed to the deal.
Nedbank has now obtained Irrevocable Undertakings from certain NCBA shareholders representing approximately 77.54% of the total issued NCBA shares to accept the offer.
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