GTBank to buy 70% of Kenya’s Fina Bank for $100million.

October 17th, 2013

Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Nigeria’s largest lender by market value, agreed to pay about $100 million for 70 percent of Kenya’s Fina Bank Ltd. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda, the GTBank said in an e-mailed statement last week.

Chief Executive Officer Segun Agbaje said in April that Guaranty Trust Bank plc, which operates in six countries outside Nigeria, was targeting East African nations for their “appreciable gross domestic product GDP, growing investments and ease of doing business.”

Fina Bank had loans of $184 million and customer deposits of $285 million at the end of March, filings show.

Profit, excluding income from discontinued operations, rose 69 percent to N87.2 billion ($541 million) in 2012 from a year earlier, GTBank said on April 2.

GTBank rose 0.2 percent to N26.42 on Friday, October 11, 2013 in Lagos. The stock has advanced 15 percent this year compared with a 25 percent gain for the 10-member Nigerian Stock Exchange Banking Index.