{"id":850320,"date":"2026-02-09T14:08:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=850320"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:10:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:10:51","slug":"sale-of-major-south-african-bank-for-r2-8-billion-collapses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/850320\/sale-of-major-south-african-bank-for-r2-8-billion-collapses\/","title":{"rendered":"Sale of major South African bank for R2.8 billion collapses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The sale of Bidvest Bank to Nigerian-based Access Bank has fallen through due to the deal’s conditions not being met. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bidvest Bank is a full-service bank that offers foreign exchange, fleet, business and personal financial products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2024, Access Bank agreed to acquire 100% of Bidvest Bank Holdings Limited’s share capital for R2.8 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Access Bank has over 60 million customers globally and a network of 700 branches across 23 countries on three continents. It is the largest lender in Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal would allow Bidvest to focus on its other operations, with the proceeds used to settle its existing debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in an update to shareholders, Bidvest noted that the sale of the bank included customary conditions precedent, including regulatory approvals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parties had been actively working together to secure approvals. However, Access Bank did not fulfil certain conditions by the agreed long-stop date. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has resulted in the termination of the R2.8 billion transaction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The considered rationale behind the original Bidvest Financial Services division’s restructure and disposal decision remains a strategic imperative,” said the group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Bidvest has now relaunched the disposal process. We remain confident in our ability to successfully execute this disposal and will endeavour to accelerate transaction timeframes.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bidvest reinstated the bank as a sole shareholder and said it will continue to support the bank to ensure it remains financially sound and operationally stable during this transition period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It noted that the bank remains well capitalised, with all key ratios above the minimum regulatory hurdles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The well-being of employees and maintaining high-quality service standards for all clients remain priorities,” the group said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sale is coming<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

While the sale of Bidvest Bank has fallen through, the group has agreed to dispose of 100% of Bidvest Life to a private-equity-led financial services consortium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key conditions are still precedent, including regulatory approvals, which are required to finalise this transaction, and all parties are working toward achieving these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bidvest Bank and Bidvest Life will thus still continue to be disclosed as a Disposal Group held for sale in the company’s financial statements, which was the case for the financial year ended June 2025.

The disposals do not meet the requirements for a categorised transaction under the JSE’s listing requirements, and the information disclosed is voluntary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bidvest previously sold FinGlobal Migration, a company focused on South African emigrants, to Momentum for R200 million, as per its move away from financial services.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bidvest Bank’s sale to Access Bank will not take place, with the broader group now looking for a new buyer as it moves away from financial services. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":812776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[21353,4473,6652],"class_list":["post-850320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-access-bank","tag-bidvest","tag-momentum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850320"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850330,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850320\/revisions\/850330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}