South Africa’s Standard Bank has acquired an additional 4.3
million shares worth about Sh422 million in Stanbic Holdings, raising
its stake in the local subsidiary to 69.1 percent in the year ended
December.
December.
The share purchases, which are expected to
continue in the near term, are part of the multinational’s plans to
raise its stake in the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm to 75
percent.
The buying spree started early last year when
Standard Bank announced it was ready to purchase 59 million Stanbic
shares at Sh95 each, valuing the offer that ran from May 21 to July 3,
2018 at Sh5.6 billion.
It only received acceptances
amounting to 31.6 million shares valued at Sh3 billion, raising its
stake to 68.01 percent from the previous 60 percent.
The
conglomerate then applied to the Capital Markets Authority seeking
approval to buy more Stanbic shares in the open market to reach its 75
percent ownership target.
“Consequently, Standard Bank has applied to the authority to
extend the exemption granted by the Authority…to allow Standard Bank to
purchase additional ordinary shares on the exchange in accordance with
the applicable exchange rules for a further period,” the multinational
said in July last year.
Standard Bank says in its
latest annual report that it subsequently acquired an additional 1.09
percent stake in the Kenyan subsidiary as of December, equivalent to an
extra 4.3 million shares.
The multinational’s plans
caused Stanbic’s share price to rally above the Sh100 mark in July last
year but conclusion of its first batch of purchases saw the stock recede
to trade below Sh95 for the remaining part of the year.
The
share price has again rallied this year to trade at about Sh100, with
the company announcing strong results for the year ended December.
The
bank’s earnings in the review period rose 45.6 percent to Sh6.2
billion, helped by higher interest and transaction-based income.
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