Kenya’s Fina Bank Renamed GTBank

Kenya’s Fina Bank will be renamed Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), following a 70 per cent acquisition by the Nigerian-based lender, said governor of Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), Prof Njuguna Ndung’u.

“The approval for acquisition takes effect as from November 8, 2013. The resulting institution shall be called Guaranty Trust Bank Kenya Limited,” Ndung’u said. Earlier this year, GTB which joins Nigerian peers UBA and EcoBank to expand into the Kenya, said its board of directors approved the majority takeover of Fina Bank at an estimated $100 million.

GTB Chief Executive, Segun Agbaje, who had earlier said the lender “will enter East Africa through a multi-country and scalable platform” confirmed the takeover, adding that it was part of the bank’s effort to benefit from the region’s booming economies.

The bank already has operations in Cote d’Ivorie, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and has over 200 branches in Nigeria. Considered one of the most profitable banks in Nigeria, analysts in the industry posit that Guaranty Bank’s growth is fuelled by oil and gas boom in Africa’s most populous nation.

As at 2011, the bank became the biggest bank in the country by market capitalisation. In 2010 it was on the third place behind Zenith Bank and First Bank.