According to several Zimbabwe media outlets, Equity Group Holdings (EGH) intends to resume talks to acquire Zimbabwean lender BancABC (Zimbabwe) a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlas Mara.
As of 2017, BancABC had 23 branches in Zimbabwe thus gives EGH access to the country’s huge population. The lender is monitoring the country’s macroeconomic environment in preparation to acquiring BancABC (Zimbabwe).
In April 2019, Equity announced the acquisition of Atlas Mara that saw the bank gain access into an additional four African countries. Atlas Mara brought on board 62 percent of shares in Banque Populaire du Rwanda, and 100 per cent of African Banking Corporation (ABC) operations in Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique.
The Zimbabwean economy has been underperforming due hyperinflation that hit 175 percent in mid-July this year. The depreciation of the local currency has also affected the country’s economic growth.
Equity Group’s Pan-African expansion strategy seeks to have a presence in 18 African countries by 2024 with a customer base of more than 100 million.
The lender is currently one of the largest banks in the region with over 14 million customers and a huge assets base.
Equity Group is listed at the Nairobi securities exchange and cross-listed in Uganda Stock Exchange and Rwanda Stock Exchange. It has banking subsidiaries in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, and DRC.
