Key Factors
- EAGH is buying 86.5 million new shares in I&M Group for KSh4.2 billion ($32.4 million), elevating its stake to 4.97%.
- The most recent deal follows EAGH’s March 2024 acquisition of a ten.13% stake from British Worldwide Funding for Ksh6.5 billion ($50.3 million).
- I&M Group plans to double its retail banking footprint in Kenya by 2026, concentrating on 100 branches by means of its iMara 3.0 technique.
East Africa Progress Holding (EAGH), a Mauritius-based funding agency, is ready to amass 86.5 million new shares in I&M Group, a distinguished East African monetary conglomerate based by Kenyan banker Suresh Bhagwanji Shah. The transaction, valued at Ksh4.2 billion ($32.4 million), marks a big shift within the area’s banking panorama.
In a press release posted on I&M Group’s website, the corporate confirmed that the acquisition would enhance EAGH’s stake to 4.97 p.c of its expanded share capital. EAGH’s buy value of Ksh48.42 ($0.37) per share displays its confidence in I&M’s progress potential. The group assured shareholders that additional particulars would observe pending the completion of the deal.
EAGH strengthens affect with second acquisition
This deal builds on EAGH’s earlier acquisition of a 10.13 percent stake in I&M Group in March 2024. That transaction, price KSh6.5 billion ($50.3 million), concerned shopping for shares from British Worldwide Funding (BII), a UK-based improvement finance establishment.
With that preliminary stake, EAGH secured oblique joint management over I&M Group, together with a seat on the board and a voice in strategic choices. Its present acquisition is topic to regulatory and shareholder approvals, together with different customary closing situations.
I&M Group’s strategic progress
I&M Group, based in 1974 by Kenyan entrepreneur Suresh Bhagwanji Shah, operates banks in Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda and has a three way partnership in Mauritius. Shah, who holds a ten.58 p.c stake within the firm, performed a key function in remodeling I&M into a number one banking group within the area.
Past banking, I&M has ventured into manufacturing. It lately partnered with Norfund to enhance operations at Kim-Fay, a hygiene product producer, by constructing a brand new facility in Tatu Metropolis’s Particular Financial Zone close to Nairobi.
I&M can be pursuing an formidable progress technique in retail banking. By means of its iMara 3.0 initiative, the financial institution goals to double its retail presence in Kenya, increasing its branch network to 100 by 2026 from the current 50. The plan includes opening a minimum of 17 branches yearly to bolster its presence within the aggressive East African banking sector.