Centum Investment Company’s stake in Sidian Bank is set to fall below 10 percent on a fresh Sh1.03 billion deal in which it plans to sell 50 percent stake in the holding company through which it owns the small lender.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm says it has received regulatory nod for the stake sale in Bakki Holdco Limited to Kenbe Investments Limited —an investment firm.
The move, which will follow another impending deal in which it wants to directly sell 18.91 percent of its current 34.1 percent stake in Sidian Bank, looks set to leave it with a shareholding of about 7.6 percent.
This underlines the impact of a series of transactions in the lender in which it owned 83.43 percent two years ago.
Disclosures in Centum’s latest annual report for the financial year ended March 2024, shows that the investment firm received the approval for the deal with Kenbe in May.
“In May 2024, Centum Investment Company Plc received regulatory approval for the acquisition of 50 percent of the issued share capital of Bakki Holdco Limited by Kenbe Investments Limited at a consideration of Sh1.032 billion. The transactions will be accounted for in the year ending 31 March 2025,” said Centum.
The disclosure comes days after the investment firm also invited shareholders to vote on the proposal to sell 18.91 percent stake in Sidian during the annual general meeting set for September 30.
The transaction in Bakki means Kenbe will become the latest shareholder in Sidian. The sale of an 18.91 percent stake, the fifth in under 12 months, could see Centum receive about Sh1.03 billion if executed using the Sh5.44 billion carrying value Sidian had by the end of June 2024.
A series of other transactions have seen Sidian welcome five new investors —Pioneer General Insurance Limited, Pioneer Life Investments Limited, Wizpro Enterprises Limited, Afrah Limited and Telesec Africa Limited— cutting Centum’s stake from the peak of 83.43 percent at the end of December 2022.
The first round of sale in October last year saw Centum receive about Sh1.98 billion for cutting its stake in Sidian from 83.43 percent to 44.52 percent in a transaction that saw the lender cease being a subsidiary of the investment firm.
Centum then sold a further stake within the last two months of 2023, cutting down its stake to 40.03 percent as it got an estimated Sh228.05 million from this deal.
The latest shareholding structure on the Sidian website shows Bakki now holds 34.1 percent stake, suggesting that Centum sold 5.93 percent this year, receiving about Sh322.6 million. This is going by Sidian’s book value by the end of June.
In mid-2022, the investment firm wanted to dispose of the entire 83.43 percent stake at once to Nigeria’s Access Bank for Sh4.3 billion.
