Access Holdings completes acquisition of Standard Chartered in Angola, Sierra Leone

*Access Holdings Plc affirms the completion of the process of taking ownership of the Angolan operations of Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart), disclosing the transactions targeting StanChart’s subsidiaries in The Gambia, Cameroon, as well as its consumer and private banking business in Tanzania would also be finalised soon

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Access Holdings Plc has completed the process of taking ownership of the Angolan operations of Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart), a multinational lender, based in Britain but operating from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Access Holdings, which disclosed this development Wednesday, November 27, 2024, in a statement, four months after announcing the deal, said Access Bank, the group’s commercial banking division, had delivered on the purchase of the banking assets in the two other African countries.

The banking group also noted that transactions targeting StanChart’s subsidiaries in The Gambia, Cameroon, as well as its consumer and private banking business in Tanzania, are to be finalised soon.

It was gathered the London-based financial institution (StanChart) Wednesday as well revealed it is considering selling its wealth and retail banking operations in Zambia, Botswana and Uganda to finance “incremental investment in its leading wealth management business.”

Access Holdings, in the statement, said Roosevelt Ogbonna, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Access Bank Plc remarked that the new acquisitions have come with the advantage that could help to “strengthen the quality of our earnings from both countries by significantly growing our share of the Corporate and SME banking in the two markets.”

Ogbonna also stated: “The combinations represent another significant step towards our broader vision of becoming the World’s Most Respected African Bank.”

It is equally observed that the West Africa’s biggest lender by assets is steadily deepening its foothold in Southern Africa, regarded as the continent’s most lucrative region for banking business.

Procuring StanChart’s unit in Angola, the region’s largest oil producer is strategic to firming up its grip on the market, crucial to its ambition of ranking among the top banks in the country in the next few years.

The lender already runs a local subsidiary called Access Bank Plc in the country.

StanChart’s determination to offload a good number of its banking assets matches Access Holdings’ hunger to scale at a time when the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is promising businesses unprecedented access to trade flows within the African continent, according to report.