The Country Manager and East Africa Managing Director of Access Bank Samuel Addae Minta has left the lender, amid an ongoing transaction to buy-out the rival National Bank of Kenya (NBK).
The exit of Mr Minta comes as the bank awaits approval from both the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to acquire NBK from KCB Group.
Sources told Business Daily that Mr Minta exited the bank on October 5—ending a stint of two years and eight months at the Access Bank regional office, which he joined in March 2022, just two years after the bank had acquired Transnational Bank PLC.
KCB Group and Access Bank made public their binding agreement for the acquisition of NBK by the Nigerian lender on March 20, 2024, with KCB Group indicating it intended to close the transaction by September 30 at a 1.25x price-to-book multiple pointing at a Sh13.3 billion valuation for NBK.
“We are at regulatory approval level. We filed both with the CBN and the CBK. We have received some feedback from them and responded. We are expecting the no objection to come anytime. We are at the tail-end of doing the completion audit, everything constant we should be closing the deal before the end of quarter three,” KCB Group Chief Finance Officer Lawrence Kimathi, told the Business Daily recently, following the release of the half-year earnings.
Among the developments that have been seen to delay the closure of the acquisition of NBK by Access Bank was the CBN’s March 28, directive which initiated recapitalisation of the banking sector in Nigeria.
The notice for revised capital adequacy requirements came just eight days after the announcement of the planned acquisition of NBK by Access Bank and revised the minimum capital requirements for international banks from the initial ₦50.0 billion (Sh4.1 billion) to the new requirement of ₦500 billion (Sh40.9 billion).
“The CBN is looking at both the need for a recapitalisation plan and it’s public knowledge that Access Bank is doing a rights issue and so they are in the market to raise some capital to meet the regulatory requirements. The regulator is probably going to focus on that and once they finish with the capital raising, then they will look at the application for acquisition,” Mr Kimathi said in the post-half-year earnings interview.
As a result of this development, Access Bank went to market with a rights issue between July 8 and August 23, seeking to raise ₦343.1 billion (Sh28.1 billion) in net proceeds geared to enable the bank to enhance its capital base and strengthen the balance sheet.
The rights issue which was initially slated to run until August 14 was extended by one week to August 23.
Under Mr Minta’s leadership, Access Bank sought to acquire an 83.4 percent stake in Sidian Bank, through a share purchase agreement with Centum Investment Company Plc in June 2022, a transaction that failed to conclude due to what was termed as the inability to secure all prerequisite conditions as agreed and failure by the parties to reach acceptable terms for the transaction.
A consortium comprising Pioneer General Insurance Ltd, Wizpro Enterprises Ltd and Afram Ltd, would nine months later acquire a 38.9 percent stake in Sidian Bank while Centum Investment, through Bakki Holdco Ltd, retained a 44.5 percent stake.
During Minta’s time in office, Access Bank Kenya has grown its asset base by 50.8 percent to Sh14.8 billion as of the close of June 2024.
