Kenya’s Equity Bank announced on Tuesday that it has entered into a preliminary agreement with financial firm Atlas Marato to purchase stakes in four African banks in Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Rwanda. Atlas Marcato is listed on the London Stock Exchange which owns some of the banking units in those countries.
The Equity Bank will acquire stakes in four African banks: 62 percent of the share capital of Rwanda’s Banque Populaire du Rwanda and 100 percent of the share capital of African Banking Corporation of Zambia, African Banking Corporation Tanzania, and African Banking Corporation Mozambique, Reuters reports. In addition, it expects to allot approximately 252,482,300 new ordinary shares with a monetary value of Sh10.7 billion.
Equity CEO James Mwangi said, “The Board of Directors has agreed to the enter into a binding term sheet through a share swap to exchange certain banking assets of Atlas Mara in four countries for shares in Equity Group.”
Earlier this week, Equity Bank also announced its partnership with a local mobile network operator Safaricom to boost financial inclusion in the country. Through the partnership, they hope to create financial products that can simplify the transfer of funds between their agents and share technical expertise. This, in turn, could help fight various malicious activities including cyber attacks.