Access Bank Plc, Nigeria’s largest bank by assets, has agreed to buy Centum Investment Plc’s 83.4% interest in Sidian Bank Ltd for N15 billion ($37 million).
Access stated the purchase price included a “book multiple of 1.1x” based on Sidian’s audited March 31, 2022 shareholders’ equity.
Sidian will merge with Access Bank Kenya to serve the Kenyan market better.
Herbert Wigwe, Access Corporation’s group CEO, said, “This expansion deal in Kenya shows the unrelenting focus and execution of our strategic objectives inside our banking subsidiary while we build the other businesses within Access Corporation’s key sectors.”
The acquisition of Sidian increases Access Bank‘s reach and possibilities in Kenya, the largest market and commerce corridor in East Africa.
The rise in scale and customer base gives us huge potential to grow our trade and payment ecosystems. The resulting economies of scale will continue to benefit all parties.
Roosevelt Ogbonna, CEO of Access Bank, stated the transaction builds on their prior acquisition of Transnational Bank Plc (now Access Bank Kenya) “and demonstrates our desire to increase our footprint in Kenya, a significant African market”
Ogbonna said the acquisition and merger would strengthen Access Bank in Kenya.
He noted that the acquisition positioned the bank to boost regional trade finance and other cross-border banking services in the EAC and COMESA region.
The bank said the deal needs Kenyan and Nigerian clearance.
It’s the bank’s sixth buy in five years.
In 2019, the lender merged with Diamond Bank.
The same year, it bought Transnational Bank (Kenya) Plc.
In August 2020, the bank announced a merger with Cavmont Bank Limited, which was completed in January 2021.
It also bought Grobank in South Africa, Marina International Bank in Nigeria, and African Banking Corporation in Mozambique.
