NCBA Group Plc, is a financial services conglomerate in

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

and

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

. The Group's headquarters are located in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

, Kenya, with subsidiaries in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

and

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

Location

The group's headquarters are located along Mara Road, in the neighborhood called Upper Hill, in

, the Capital City of Kenya. The geographical coordinates of the group's headquarters are:01°17'52.0"S, 36°48'46.0"E (Latitude:-1.297778; Longitude:36.812778).

Overview

NCBA Group Plc is a large financial services organization in East and West Africa, with assets valued at over US$4.43 billion (KES:464.89 billion) as of December 2019. Shareholders' equity at that time was valued at approximately US$661 million (KES:69.416 billion). The group functions as a non-operating

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

for its subsidiaries in the region. As of October 2019, the group serviced an estimated 40 million customers in four East African countries and in one West African country.

History

1959–1990

National Industrial Credit (NIC) was incorporated in Kenya on 29 September 1959, when

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

-based

Standard Bank Standard Bank Group Limited is a major South African bank and financial services group. It is Africa's biggest lender by assets. The company's corporate headquarters, Standard Bank Centre, is situated in Simmonds Street, Johannesburg. History ...

and

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

-based Mercantile Credit Limited jointly formed the company to provide hire purchase and installment credit finance facilities in East Africa. Standard Bank held 40 percent of the venture while Mercantile Credit held the remaining 60 percent. In 1971, NIC became a public company and was listed on the then

Nairobi Stock Exchange The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) was established in 1954 as the Nairobi Stock Exchange, based in Nairobi the capital of Kenya. It was a voluntary association of stockbrokers in the European community registered under the Societies Act in ...

(NSE). Barclays Bank of Kenya Limited (BBK) acquired 51 percent of NIC's total shares through the acquisition of Mercantile in the 1970s and Standard's NIC shares in the 1980s.

1991–1999

Between 1993 and 1996, BBK divested its shares, selling 38 percent of its shares to the public in 1994 through a

secondary market offering A secondary market offering, according to the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), is a registered offering of a large block of a security that has been previously issued to the public. The blocks being offered may have been held ...

and the remaining 20 percent in 1996 to the First Chartered Securities Group (FCS). Because of changing trends, regulatory requirements in the Kenyan banking industry, and the need to meet growing customer requirements, NIC obtained a commercial banking license from the

Central Bank of Kenya The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) ( sw, Banki Kuu ya Kenya) is the monetary authority of Kenya. Its head office is located in Nairobi. CBK was founded by in 1966 after the dissolution of East African Currency Board (EACB). Dr. Patrick Ngugi Njoroge ...

in September 1995. To effectively diversify into mainstream commercial banking, NIC merged in November 1997 with African Mercantile Bank Limited, which was then owned by FCS, by way of a share swap. The purpose of this merger was to allow NIC to enhance its market position, provide a broader and more efficient range of services to its customers, and increase the returns to shareholders.

2000–2008

In 2006, NIC established an

investment bank Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing is ...

NIC Capital as a wholly owned subsidiary. In 2008, NIC through its subsidiary NIC Capital acquired a 91 percent stake in Solid Securities Limited and subsequently re-branded it to NIC Securities Limited. This acquisition gave NIC Bank Group a seat at the NSE.

2009-To Date

In 2009 NIC Bank Group established NIC Insurance Agents to offer insurance brokerage and bancassurance services. In the same year, the Group made its first expansion outside Kenya through its acquisition of a 51 percent share of Savings and Finance Commercial Bank, a medium size bank in Tanzania. In December 2010, the Savings and Finance Commercial Bank was renamed NIC Bank Tanzania Limited. In 2012, the group established operations in

through NC Bank Uganda. This was a

greenfield investment In many disciplines, a greenfield project is one that lacks constraints imposed by prior work. The analogy is to that of construction on greenfield land where there is no need to work within the constraints of existing buildings or infrastructure ...

. In December 2018, NIC Group announced that it would be merging with

Commercial Bank of Africa Group Commercial Bank of Africa Group (CBA Group) is a financial services provider in East Africa. Its headquarters are located in Nairobi, Kenya, with subsidiaries in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Ivory Coast. The CBA Group is a large financial ...

(CBA) creating Kenya's third-biggest bank. The merger involved the transfer of 100 percent of the shares of CBA Group by its shareholders to NIC Group in exchange for 53 percent of the newly formed group making the deal a

reverse merger A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compan ...

. The Transaction was approved by the Kenyan regulators and shareholders by April 2019. As of May 2019, the merged group was still operating two sets of banks in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania but was in the process of seeking regulatory approval to merge these business so that they can have one bank in each country and a group re-branding.

Merger history

The following is an illustration of NCBA Group's major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors (this is not a comprehensive list):

Member companies

NCBA Group maintains the following subsidiaries, as of April 2020. #

NCBA Bank Kenya NCBA Bank Kenya, whose full name is NCBA Bank Kenya Plc, is a commercial bank in Kenya. It is licensed by the Central Bank of Kenya, the country's central bank and national banking regulator. Location The bank's headquarters are located at N ...

Retail banking Retail banking, also known as consumer banking or personal banking, is the provision of services by a bank to the general public, rather than to companies, corporations or other banks, which are often described as wholesale banking. Banking servi ...

: Nairobi, Kenya – 100 percent shareholding – A

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with cor ...

in Kenya, serving individuals and businesses, focusing mainly on large corporations. This is the flagship company of the group. # NCBA Investment Bank Limited:

Investment banking Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated wit ...

: Nairobi, Kenya – NCBA Investment Bank was established in 2005 to offer investment banking services. The group owns all the shares in the unit. # NCBA Insurance Agents:

Bancassurance Bancassurance is a relationship between a bank and an insurance company that is aimed at offering insurance products or insurance benefits to the bank's customers. In this partnership, bank staff and tellers become the point of sale and point o ...

– Nairobi, Kenya – NCBA Insurance Agents offers Bancassurance services. NCBA Group owns all of the company. #

NCBA Bank Tanzania NCBA Bank Tanzania Limited, is a merged bank between Commercial Bank of Africa (Tanzania) and NIC Bank Tanzania. It is a commercial bank in Tanzania licensed by the Bank of Tanzania, the central bank and national banking regulator. Location T ...

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

, Tanzania. After a successful rights issue in 2013, NIC Group's interest in its Tanzanian subsidiary rose from 51 percent to 68.97 percent. #

NCBA Bank Uganda NCBA Bank Uganda Limited (commonly called NCBA Bank Uganda or shortened to NCBU), is a commercial bank in Uganda. It is one of the commercial banks licensed by the Bank of Uganda, the country's central bank and national banking regulator. Overvie ...

: Retail banking:

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

. The group owns all of the shares of the unit. # NCBA Bank Rwanda: Retail banking:

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...

. # M-Shwari Mobile Banking: Mobile money bank service:

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N'Ko script, N’ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the economic capital of the Ivory Coast. As of the Demographics of Ivory Coast, 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of overall population of the country, ...

.
AIG Kenya Insurance Company Limited
Offering

general insurance General insurance or non-life insurance policy, including automobile and homeowners policies, provide payments depending on the loss from a particular financial event. General insurance is typically defined as any insurance that is not determine ...

: Nairobi, Kenya – 33.33% shareholding the balance held by the

American International Group American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people.https://www.aig.com/content/dam/aig/amer ...

.About AIG Kenya
/ref>

Ownership

The

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

of NCBA Bank Group listed on the

, where it trades under the symbol NINC. As of December 2019, the largest shareholders in the Group's stock are as depicted in the table below:

References

External links

NCBA Group Plc Homepage

Nairobi Stock Exchange Website

Central Bank of Kenya

List of Licensed Commercial Banks in Kenya

As of 11 April 2012. {{coord, 01, 17, 52, S, 36, 48, 46, E, display=title Banks of Kenya * Companies listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange Companies based in Nairobi Banks established in 1959 Kenyan companies established in 1959