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Co-operative Bank eyes Jamii Bora in take-over bid

Thursday, March 12th, 2020 00:00 | By

Co-operative Bank has proposed to acquire 100 per cent of Jamii Bora Bank Ltd. Jamii Bora falls within the third tier category of banks in Kenya. 

Co-op Bank is the fourth largest bank with a total assets base of Sh440.8 billion as at September 2019, while Jamii Bora has an asset base of Sh12.5 billion according to the last financial report dated March 2018. 

According to Co-op Bank Group Company secretary Samuel Kibugi the acquisition will strengthen both institutions leveraging on their respective well established domestic and regional corporate public sector, retail business and the 15 million-member co-operative movement. 

Technical expertise

Jamii Bora will leverage on Co-op Bank’s technical expertise to enable it to deliver services to clients. “Co-op Bank is a strong case study of a strategic business turnaround, from a loss of more than Sh2.3 billion in 2001 the bank is now one of the largest banks in the region with an asset base of more than Sh450 billion,” Kibugi said. 

He said Co-op Bank has chosen a strategy of “increased dominance” in the Domain Market Segment (Kenya) and has the opportunity to cross-sell and deepen product offering to the enhanced customer base. 

Should the merger sail through, Coop Bank Group will have a total asset base of Sh453.3 billion making it the fourth-largest bank after KCB Group, whose total asset base stands at Sh898.6 billion, Equity Group with Sh 677.1 billion and NCBA which had total assets worth Sh454.6 billion. 

The move to buy Jamii Bora comes a year after Commercial Bank Africa (CBA) dropped its bid to acquire the bank after it merged with NIC to form NCBA. 

CBA had opened buyout talks with Jamii Bora Bank at the same time it was in discussions with NIC Bank over the merger that was completed last October. 

According to NCBA chief executive John Gachora the discussions over the Jamii Bora deal did not continue after the CBA-NIC merger.  CBA had in January 2018 made a Sh1.4 billion cash offer to buy out Jamii Bora Bank. 

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