Barclays Kenya ready to buy as regulators urge the industry to consolidate
Nairobi — Barclays Bank of Kenya is ready to make acquisitions in East Africa’s largest economy as the industry struggles to cope with interest-rate caps that have cut profit and curbed lending, with regulators urging the industry to consolidate. "Are we open to acquiring? Absolutely," CEO Jeremy Awori said in an interview on Wednesday in Nairobi. "So you’ll either be looking to acquire capabilities you don’t have, which will be mutually compatible, or you’d be able to see efficiencies that you’d be able to gain being together, rather than running two separate entities." Awori’s comment that he is "very open minded" to making purchases that will boost shareholder value comes as KCB Group, the country’s biggest lender by assets, bids for the state-owned National Bank of Kenya (NBK). KCB is seeking to buy NBK as the regulator urges consolidation among the country’s 42 lenders, which is more per person than SA, the continent’s most industrialised economy, and Nigeria, its biggest oil p...
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