An acquisition agreement was recently entered into by Access Bank Plc (Access) and Standard Chartered Bank for the purchase of Standard Chartered’s shareholding in its subsidiaries located in Angola, Cameroon, The Gambia and Sierra Leone.
According to the agreement, Access Bank will acquire Standard Chartered’s Consumer, Private & Business Banking business in Tanzania with a clause that the completion of each transaction is subject to approval from local regulators and the banking regulator in Nigeria.
The announcement was made at Standard Chartered’s headquarters in London, where senior representatives from both banks were present. Sunil Kaushal, Regional CEO of Africa & Middle East at Standard Chartered, and Roosevelt Ogbonna, Group Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, signed the agreement in a deal that aligns with Standard Chartered’s global strategy to achieve operational efficiencies, reduce complexity and drive scale.
Access Bank will ensure continuity and provide a comprehensive range of banking services to employees and clients of Standard Chartered in the aforementioned countries. Also, the two banks will work closely together in the coming months to facilitate a seamless transition with the entire process expected to be completed within the next year.
Sunil Kaushal, in expressing his thoughts on the agreement stated that it allows Standard Chartered to reallocate resources within the Africa and Middle East region to areas with substantial growth potential, enabling better support for their clients. He also emphasized the importance of working closely with Access Bank’s team to safeguard the interests of clients and prioritize employees throughout the transaction.
Roosevelt Ogbonna, Group Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, expressed his satisfaction with the agreement, acknowledging the selection of Access Bank as Standard Chartered’s preferred partner. He praised Standard Chartered Bank’s longstanding presence and solid reputation in the markets being divested.
He further described the strategic transaction as a significant step for Access Bank in building a robust global franchise, focused on facilitating payments, investment, and trade within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world.
It must be noted that Access Bank’s vision to become the World’s Most Respected African Bank is supported by their commitment to reshaping the global perception of Africa and African businesses. They plan to establish a world-class payments gateway, utilizing technology and a dynamic ecosystem of local and international partnerships to efficiently serve global payments and remittances. Ogbonna emphasized their dedication to positively impacting host communities.
Standard Chartered had previously decided to divest from several markets, including Lebanon, Angola, Cameroon, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, and Jordan, and to exit the Consumer Private and Business Banking (CPBB) business in Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania. The bank had already announced the sale of its business in Zimbabwe and Jordan. With the recent agreement, Standard Chartered has substantially completed its divestment process from the markets announced in April 2022, except for Côte d’Ivoire, where discussions with potential buyers for the CPBB business are still ongoing.
