SBM Holdings, a Mauritius financial services group, has entered into a deal to acquire Kenya's bottom-tier Fidelity Bank by end of the year after failing to secure a licence for direct entry. Mauritius second biggest publicly traded firm plans to complete the deal by end of the year subject to regulatory approvals, the Central Bank said in a statement yesterday. The lender, valued at about Sh427 billion ($4.2 billion) in November, also has international operations in India, Madagascar, and a representative office in Myanmar. The group said it will pump Sh1.46 billion additional capital into Fidelity once the deal in sealed. The lender started as a non-bank financial institution in June 1992, and converted into a commercial bank in April 1996.

Source: The Star November 23, 2016 02:16 UTC