Kingdom Bank Kenya: In July 2020, shareholder of the shareholders of Jamii Bora Bank unanimously approved Co-operative Bank’s acquisition offer. In an Extra Ordinary General Meeting that was held on 1st July 2020, the shareholders resolved that Co-op Bank could acquire up to 90 per cent of the bank. This would be done through the subscription of 224,153,154 new class of Ordinary Shares that would enable Co-op Bank to inject Sh. 1 billion into the bank.
In August 2020, the Co-operative Bank of Kenya formally acquired Jamii Bora. Many financial experts and bank customers were keen to observe whether Co-op Bank would succeed in its attempt to turn around the fortunes of a bank that had been in the loss-making territory for half a decade.
At the time, Jamii Bora had not disclosed annual results since 2017. Jamii Bora had also been posting losses for five consecutive years, the heaviest coming in the financial 2019 when it posted a net loss of Sh. 1.2 billion.
After acquiring Jamii Bora, in late August, Co-op Bank launched the ambitious Jamii Bora turn around. The bank renamed Jamii Bora Bank Kingdom Bank and also appointed new chief executive officer. ”Pursuant to Central Bank of Kenya approvals, the former Jamii Bora Bank has changed its name and will now operate as “Kingdom Bank Limited,’’ Co-operative Bank chief executive officer Gideon Muriuki said in a statement.
Anthony Mburu was appointed as the new CEO of the rebranded bank in a series of changes that also saw a new board of directors appointed. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Mburu had been the director for credit management at Co-op Bank. He took over from Timothy Mwaniki Kabiru who had been the CEO of Jamii Bora.
The new changes at Kingdom began to bear fruits almost immediately. By the end of the 2020 financial year, Kingdom slashed its losses to Sh. 169 million from Sh. 1.2 billion loss it had posted in 2019.
Kingdom Bank to end five year loss streak with Sh. 300m profit in 2021
In the first quarter of 2021, the bank returned to profitability with a net profit of Sh. 126 million for the period ended March 2021. This performance now means that Kingdom is compliant with all the Central Bank of Kenya capital and liquidity ratios. It had Sh. 1.15 billion core capital and a liquidity ratio of 387 percent in March.
Currently, the bank, which is projecting to make profits of up to Sh. 300 million in the current financial year serves over 136,000 customers in seventeen branches. “The group has continued with a strategy for continued deepening and dominance in our domain market segment leveraging on our successful penetration of the micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) and the Saccos, while reviewing opportunities to grow alternative income streams,” Dr. Muriuki said on Co-op Bank’s latest thriving subsidiary.