Acquisition of 90% of Jamii Bora Bank by Co-operative Bank

Acquisition of 90% of Jamii Bora Bank by Co-operative Bank

1. Co-op Bank has been pleased to note that the shareholders of Jamii Bora Bank, have pursuant to an Extra Ordinary General Meeting held on 1st July 2020 unanimously approved Co-op Bank’s offer to acquire 90% of the bank.  This will be through the subscription of 224,153,154 new class of Ordinary Shares that would enable Co-op Bank inject Kshs.1 Billion and appoint a Board to run the business.  

1. The Co-operative Bank Group is one of the largest banks in the region with an asset base of over Kshs.470 billion, pre-dominantly owned by the over 15 million member Kenya Co-operative movement. The following are the related companies;

Subsidiaries

• The Co-operative Bank of Kenya Limited.
• Co-optrust Investment Services Limited – 100%.
• Co-op Consultancy & Insurance Agency Limited – 100%
• Kingdom Securities Limited – 60%.
• Co-operative Bank of South Sudan Limited – 51%.

Associates

• CIC Insurance Group – 24.7%.
• Co-op Bank Fleet Africa Leasing Limited – 25%.

1. Jamii Bora Bank is a fully-fledged Commercial Bank, licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya, with over 444,000 customers in 17 branches and employs over 190 staff. The Bank has a strategic niche in MSME banking, offering working capital and trade finance solutions.  Jamii Bora Bank has also the following businesses; 

• Jamii Bora Leasing Limited.
• Jamii Bora Insurance Agency Limited.

1. The next steps will now be the regulatory approvals notably from Central Bank of Kenya, Capital Markets Authority and the Competition Authority of Kenya.

• The strategic entry of Co-op Bank coming in as a 90% strategic owner is an “Inclusive Growth Model” that particularly safeguards the existing shareholders of Jamii Bora; in that they will now share in the expected future Transformation gains/profitability growth.

This acquisition will strengthen both institutions leveraging on the Co-operative Bank’s well-established Universal Banking model as well as our successful business Transformation Agenda/Turnaround riding on the bedrock of the 15 million member co-operative movement and a Kshs.470 Billion balance sheet.

Co-op Bank had a profit of Kshs.20.7 Billion as at 31st December 2019 and on 23rd April 2020 paid out over Kshs.5.9 Billion in dividends to our shareholders.