Kenyan Lender CBA Agrees to Acquire Crane Bank’s Rwanda Unit

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd., a closely held Kenyan lender, agreed to acquire the Rwandan unit of Crane Bank Ltd., Uganda’s fourth-largest lender.

An agreement on the purchase has been signed, the Nairobi-based lender said in an emailed statement on Thursday. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval, it said.

“The acquisition signals CBA’s strategic intentions to expand its existing business operations in Rwanda and participate meaningfully in Rwanda’s economic growth agenda,” it said.

Crane Bank’s parent company in Uganda was placed in receivership in October and its assets were transferred to DFCU Bank Ltd. at the start of this year. Crane was “significantly undercapitalized” and posed a risk to the nation’s financial system, the Ugandan central bank said when it seized the lender last year.

Crane said in September it was looking for a strategic equity investor with a regional or continental network.

CBA, which is controlled by the family of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, also has operations in Uganda and Tanzania. The bank has total assets of 227 billion shillings ($2.2 billion) and serves more than 27 million customers in East Africa, according to the statement.