Companies

Absa Group takes 68.5pc stake in Barclays Kenya

BBK

Barclays Plc 68.5 per cent stake in the Kenyan unit will be held by South Africa's Absa Group by June next year after it bought the parent company's Africa operations. Photo/File

Barclays Plc 68.5 per cent stake in the Kenyan unit will be held by South Africa's Absa Group by June next year after it bought the parent company's Africa operations.

Barclays Bank of Kenya will, however, remain listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange where the minority shareholders will continue to trade its shares.

Barclays Plc is set to consolidate its shareholding in its African operations, including Kenya, in a Sh179.7 billion transaction set to be completed in the first half of next year.

Absa will use 129,540,636 of its shares to acquire the stakes of Barclays Plc in its units in Kenya, Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, and the regional office in South Africa.

The transaction will result in the UK bank raising its stake in Absa –which will be renamed to Barclays Africa Limited—to 62.3 per cent from the current 55.5 per cent.

The consolidation is aimed at creating seamless operations and synergies between Barclays and Absa in Africa.