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KCB Group books Sh3.1bn gain from sale of National Bank
Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group Director Finance Lawrence Kimathi makes his remarks during the bank’s announcement of the FY 2025 Financial Results at the Emara Ole Sereni on March 11, 2026.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
KCB Group has booked a Sh3.1 billion gain from the sale of National Bank of Kenya (NBK) to Access Bank.
The gain represents the difference between the sale price paid by Access Bank for NBK and what KCB paid for the former subsidiary plus the additional capital it injected in the mid-sized lender.
KCB completed the sale of its 100 percent stake in NBK to Access in May last year at an approximate cost of Sh13.2 billion, based on the disclosed transactional multiple of 1.25 times the book value at the end of December 2023.
Proceeds from the sale helped KCB pay a special Sh4 per share dividend in mid-2025 which it followed up with a two-fold increase in its final dividend for the year, taking its total payout per share to Sh7 from Sh3 in 2024.
“The Sh3.1 billion gain is the difference between what we bought NBK at and capitalised, so it is what we were holding as an asset in our books and what we were getting paid (by Access),” said Lawrence Kimathi, KCB Group chief finance officer.
He however declined to disclose KCB's total cost in buying and capitalising NBK. He also did not specify the proceeds from the sale of the lender to Access Bank.
KCB bought NBK through a share swap in a deal that was valued at more than Sh5 billion and which was completed in early 2020. It then injected more than Sh8 billion in the bank throughout its holding period, including a Sh3.45 billion loan to equity conversion in 2022.
Most of the capital infusion in NBK served to help the bank meet regulatory capital requirements.
KCB has realised further gains from the sale beyond the cash haul after deconsolidating NBK which was the source of a significant portion of the group's bad loans. After excluding NBK from its balance sheet for the year ended December 2025, KCB Group realised its lowest ratio of NPLs since December 2021.
The lender’s gross non-performing loans fell 6.15 percent to Sh211.8 billion as of December 2025 from Sh225.6 billion a year earlier. The bank says its divestiture from NBK helps return its full focus to its local subsidiary --KCB Bank Kenya.
“We divested NBK to have a single more focus on KCB Kenya,” Paul Russo, KCB Group CEO.
The lender expects to hold on to its cash haul from the sale as it scouts for regional acquisitions. KCB retains keen interest to enter the Ethiopian market and has ruled out local acquisitions, betting that KCB Kenya can grow faster organically.
“We remain interested in going into Ethiopia. We are actively evaluating and when we have the final decision from the Board, we shall communicate that,” Mr Russo added.
“There is no consideration for an acquisition in Kenya. It's that simple. We can grow Kenya (by the magnitude of) one bank per year. There is no justification for a local acquisition."
KCB has regional presence in six markets including DRC, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan and Burundi.
The regional subsidiaries contributed 29.5 percent of the lender's Sh66.8 billion net profit for 2025.
