{"id":850534,"date":"2026-02-11T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=850534"},"modified":"2026-02-10T17:41:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T15:41:18","slug":"major-international-bank-betting-big-on-south-africa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/850534\/major-international-bank-betting-big-on-south-africa-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Major international bank betting big on South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Access Bank has reaffirmed its commitment to South Africa after the Nigerian-based bank was unable to finalise a deal to acquire Bidvest Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Access Bank has over 60 million customers globally and operates across three countries. It is the largest lender in Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2024, the Nigerian Bank announced a deal to acquire 100% of Bidvest Bank for R2.8 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal would grow Access Bank’s operations in South Africa. The Nigerian Bank would implement Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment ownership, including an Employee Stock Ownership Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bidvest Bank’s book totalled R6 billion, including assets, loans and advances, in December 2024, and was funded by deposits of R8 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

However, the deal is no longer taking place. By the long-stop date of 26 January 2026, the conditions required to complete the transaction expired, with certain conditions, including regulatory approval, not met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Access Bank said that the outcome reflects the challenges and extended timelines associated with multi-jurisdictional regulatory and transactional processes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was, however, not a reflection of the bank’s strategic intent or assessment of the South African market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe remain constructively engaged with stakeholders on this transaction towards finding a potential path to closure,” said Access Bank MD Roosevelt Ogbonna. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This initial outcome does not diminish our confidence in South Africa\u2019s financial ecosystem.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We remain focused on building Africa\u2019s most respected financial institution, strengthening our trade finance capabilities and delivering long-term value to customers, partners and communities across all our markets.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the sale not going through, Access Bank already has operations in the country. The Nigerian lender acquired Grobank Limited in 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grobank, which was previously known as Bank of Athens, was mainly focused on agriculture before Access Bank transformed it into a retail banking operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Access Bank offers personal, business, and corporate banking in South Africa, with offices in Sandton, Johannesburg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some good news for Bidvest <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While Bidvest is now on the hunt for a new buyer for Bidvest Bank, several other sales have come from its financial services division. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bidvest announced that it also reached an agreement to sell 100% of FinGlobal to the Momentum Group for R200 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FinGlobal was a global mobility and emigration services provider, with all of the FinGlobal employees retained as per the transaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis acquisition supports our stated strategic intent to invest in financial advice to drive growth,\u201d said Johann le Roux, CEO of Momentum Retail, when the deal was announced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bidvest has also recently announced that it has agreed to sell 100% of Bidvest Life to a private-equity-led financial services consortium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key conditions of the Bidvest Life deal are still precedent, including regulatory approvals, which are required to finalise this transaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to Bidvest Bank and Bidvest Life, the parent company said that they will continue to be disclosed as a Disposal Group held for sale in its financial results, which was the case for the 2025 financial year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While its acquisition of Bidvest Bank is no longer taking place, Access Bank says it remains committed to South Africa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":805829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[21353,4473,21882,6652],"class_list":["post-850534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-access-bank","tag-bidvest","tag-finglobal","tag-momentum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850534","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=850534"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850549,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850534\/revisions\/850549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}