Absa (ASA) and Barclays are in negotiations about combining the majority of the Barclays Africa operations with Absa.<\/p>\n
The companies issued a cautionary announcement on Tuesday\u201a advising that in line with their strategy to operate as One Bank in Africa\u201a they are engaged in discussions.<\/p>\n
This is expected to involve the combination of Barclays interests in Botswana\u201a Ghana\u201a Kenya\u201a Tanzania\u201a Uganda\u201a Zambia and the Indian Ocean with Absa\u201a with Barclays Bank PLC remaining as the majority shareholder of the combined African operations.<\/p>\n
The listings of Barclays subsidiaries in Kenya\u201a on the Nairobi Securities Exchange\u201a and in Botswana\u201a on the Botswana Stock Exchange\u201a would be maintained. Only Barclays holdings in these listed subsidiaries would be included in the proposed combination.<\/p>\n
The proposed combination would be subject to\u201a among other things\u201a the approval of the Boards of Barclays and Absa\u201a as well as Absa shareholder approval and regulatory approvals in the relevant jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
There can be no certainty that these discussions will lead to a combination. The proposed combination would not be expected to be completed until 2013\u201a they said:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether or not successfully concluded\u201a the proposed combination may have a material effect on the price of Absa’s shares. Accordingly\u201a shareholders are advised to exercise caution when dealing in Absa’s shares until a further announcement is made\u201a\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
Absa Group’s business is conducted primarily in South Africa\u201a but it also has equity holdings in banks in Mozambique and Tanzania\u201a representative offices in Namibia and Nigeria and bancassurance operations in Botswana\u201a Mozambique and Zambia.<\/p>\n
The businesses in scope for the proposed combination employ more than 8\u201a000 people and have a network of more than 400 branches and 750 ATMs serving approximately 2.2 million customers.<\/p>\n
As at December 2011\u201a the Barclays Africa businesses in scope for the proposed combination had total assets of approximately GBP6 billion.<\/p>\n
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