Nigeria’s Access Bank gets approval to acquire SA’s Grobank

Nigeria’s Access Bank announced that it has received approvals from Nigerian and South African regulatory bodies to acquire South African bank, Grobank Limited.

The announcement was contained in a statement made available to the Nigerian Stock Exchange signed by Sunday Ekwochi, the Company Secretary of the bank.

According to the statement, the approvals constitute a significant milestone in achieving completion of the transaction by the second quarter of 2021. 

Speaking on the development, the CEO of Access Bank, Mr. Herbert Wigwe said, “Today’s announcement represents significant progress in delivering on our strategic intent of becoming Africa’s Gateway to the World in pursuit of our vision to be the World’s Most Respected African Bank.”

The bank is rapidly solidifying its vision to be one of the major banks in Africa. It recently completed the acquisition of Transnational bank in Kenya and announced its intention to acquire 100% of Zambia’s Cavmont Capital, through its subsidiary, Access Bank Zambia.

Formerly known as the South African Bank of Athens Limited or ‘‘SABA’’), Grobank is owned by GroCapital Holdings. Operating as a South African bank since 1947, Grobank is focused on developing and delivering banking services to medium-sized businesses and individuals, specializing in the agri-business value chain and associated industries in the South African market, driven by a unique combination of retail, business and alliance banking and agri-business experience.

Grobank offers comprehensive traditional business banking such as lending, transaction banking, treasury and foreign exchange as well as alliance banking services, which provide niche transactional banking offerings in partnership with non-banking entities who would like to offer financial services into their customer base.

Grobank’s revenues for the twelve months ended September 30, 2019 were $11 million. At September 30, 2019, Grobank had shareholders’ equity of $25 million and there were 198 employees at December 31, 2019.

Access Bank currently has a customer base of 42 million, growing at about 500,000 on a monthly basis. For nine months ended September 2020, its gross revenues were at about ₦592 billion and a PBT of ₦116 billion.