Malawi Stock Exchange listed commercial bank, FMB, says it is confident its proposed acquisition of a controlling stake in Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe (BBZ) could be completed around July.<\/p>\n
FMB on Tuesday indicated that it had entered into exclusive discussions with Barclays Bank over the acquisition. In an interview on Thursday, FMB Chairman, Hitesh Anadkat, said they have received approvals in principal from the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) as well as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).<\/p>\n
Anadkat, who said FMB intends to buy slightly over 50 percent stakes in BBZ, could, however, not mention the price tag for of the deal.<\/p>\n
Currently, Barclays Bank has 67 percent stakes in BBZ with the remaining shares being traded on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n
If the deal is successful, it will make Zimbabwe the fifth country where FMB has a presence after Malawi, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the countries in which we are operating, Zimbabwe was the missing link in as far as the Southern African region is concerned. So, we hope that by entering the Zimbabwe market, we will complete our equation in as far as having a footprint in the region is concerned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThough others might argue that the Zimbabwe economy is struggling, the banking industry remains vibrant and profitable,\u201d Anadkat said.<\/p>\n
He was also quick to dispel concerns that FMB is too small to buy BBZ, saying the FMB Group has enough financial muscle and expertise for the deal.<\/p>\n
BBZ is one of the leading banks in Zimbabwe and has operated in the country since 1912 and is listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n
The bank\u2019s head office is in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe. The bank has a major commercial banking network throughout the country with 38 branches in all large commercial centres.<\/p>\n
BBZ currently has the largest ATM network in Zimbabwe with 71 ATMs spread across the country. It currently employs 1,022 permanent staff members.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, FMB also announced a corporate restructuring initiative which will see the formation of a holding company registered in Mauritius.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been advised by three principal shareholders, collectively representing 55 percent of the issued capital of FMB, that they intend to transfer their shares in FMB to FMB Capital Holdings Plc, a company incorporated in Mauritius,\u201d Anadkat said.<\/p>\n
The move will see FMB shares being delisted on the MSE and FMBCH shares being listed. According to Anadkat, the move is aimed at boosting the group\u2019s chances of raising capital to expand the business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malawi Stock Exchange listed commercial bank, FMB, says it is confident its proposed acquisition of a controlling stake in Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe (BBZ) could be completed around July. FMB on Tuesday indicated that it had entered into exclusive discussions with Barclays Bank over the acquisition. In an interview on Thursday, FMB Chairman, Hitesh Anadkat, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43593,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43588\/revisions\/43593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}