Access Bank Plc will retain at least 80 per cent of National Bank of Kenya (NBK) employees for at least one year as a condition by the Competition Authority for the Nigerian lender to acquire the entire issued share capital of NBK.
- •In its approval, Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) also rooted for the retention of all Access Bank (Kenya) employees by Access Bank Plc for a period of one year.
- •National Bank currently has 1,384 employees while Access Bank’s Kenyan subsidiary has 316 staff members.
- •As of December, last year, Access Bank Kenya was classified as a tier 3 bank and is ranked 37th out of 39 banks while NBK is classified as a tier 2 and ranked 15th out of 39 banks.
“Based on the submissions by the parties, the proposed transaction will negatively affect employment since, post-merger, the acquirer intends to merge the operations of the target and its Kenyan subsidiary,” noted CAK.
“However, the merging parties have committed to compensating employees whose contracts will be terminated in accordance with the Employment Act and other applicable labour laws,” CAK adds.
In March, KCB Group CEO Paul Russo confirmed that the bank was in the process of selling NBK at 1.25* its book value, to Access Bank.
Access Bank, which has been on a mergers and acquisitions streak across the continent, already has a presence in Kenya after it acquired Transnational Bank in 2019.
The Nigerian lender originally wanted to acquire Sidian Bank from Centum Investments, but the deal fell through in 2023.
On 13th August, COMESA’s Competition Commission approved the parts of the KCB-Access deal in other markets other than Kenya, and referred the part of the transaction related to the Kenyan market to CAK.