Banking

NAIROBI(Capital Markets in Africa) – After agreeing to Kenya’s biggest banking merger in at least a decade, Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd. and NIC Group Plc, are ready to take on regional rivals that have outsized them until now. The combined entity will have assets of 415 billion shillings ($4.1 billion) — about double what they each hold individually in the country — catapulting it past Co-operative Bank of Kenya Ltd. as the East African nation’s third-largest lender….

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd. and NIC Group Plc agreed to combine their operations to create Kenya’s third-largest lender in the biggest banking tie-up in at least a decade. Privately-held CBA will get 53 percent of the merger entity, while NIC Group will hold the balance, NIC’s Chief Executive Officer John Gachora told investors at a briefing in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The merged bank will have a combined asset base…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – After agreeing to Kenya’s biggest banking merger in at least a decade, Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd. and NIC Group Plc, are ready to take on regional rivals that have outsized them until now. The combined entity will have assets of 415 billion shillings ($4.1 billion) — about double what they each hold individually in the country — catapulting it past Co-operative Bank of Kenya Ltd. as the East African nation’s third-largest…

KIGALI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Rwanda’s biggest lender is expanding into investment banking to win more business customers as competition for consumers intensifies. BK Group Plc’s Bank of Kigali will start its investment-banking unit in March, Chief Executive Officer Diane Karusisi said in an interview in the Rwandan capital. The lender also plans to start an insurance unit as it seeks to diversify earnings, she said. Rivalry in retail banking among the nation’s 11 commercial lenders is…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zenith Bank Plc, Nigeria’s second-biggest lender, is increasing its focus on consumer lending as lower oil prices weigh on the economy, hurting its business customers. The Lagos-based bank is expecting to expand retail loans as a percentage of total credit to about 4 percent this year from less than 1 percent in 2018, Chief Executive Officer Peter Amangbo said in interview at the bank’s headquarters. It will achieve this by making…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Moody’s Investors Service Ltd. placed on review for downgrade Access Bank Plc’s ratings and an upgrade for Diamond Bank Plc’s ratings. The reviews are on Access Bank’s foreign-currency deposit ratings and long-term counter-party risk rating and assessment, among others, Moody’s said Tuesday in an emailed statement. Some of the ratings under review for an upgrade at Diamond include its Caa1 long-term deposit ratings and its Caa3 baseline credit assessment, it said….