CDC Group of UK in talks to buy stake in I&M

Bloomberg

CDC Group Plc is seeking to purchase a 10.68 percent stake in I&M Holdings Ltd. of Kenya through a private share transfer, the lender said.
The UK-based development finance institution entered into a conditional agreement to buy shares held by Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft and Proparco, which have 6.25 percent and 4.43 percent respectively, according to a statement in Nairobi-based Daily Nation.
Kenya’s sixth-largest lender by assets is awaiting regulatory approval to acquire a small lender, Giro Commercial Bank.
I&M Holdings also has authorisation to purchase a 65 percent share of Nairobi-based Burbidge Capital Ltd., a corporate finance advisory firm that also has operations in Uganda.
Kenya’s central bank, which has had three small lenders put under statutory management in the past nine months, has said the nation’s financial institutions should look for natural consolidation. The $61 billion East African economy has 42 banks serving 44 million
people.
CDC Group plc is a Development Finance Institution owned by the UK Government. The Department for International Development is responsible for CDC, with shareholder duties managed by the Shareholder Executive. It has an investment portfolio valued around £2.8 billion and is focused on the emerging markets of Asia, Africa and Latin America, with particular emphasis on South Asia andsub-Saharan Africa.
In July 2004 CDC spun out an emerging markets private equity fund manager, Actis Capital, with a 60 percent stake sold to the management team. CDC remained an active sponsor of Actis’s investment activities, committing the equivalent of 650 million US dollars to the firm’s third fund.
Following its reorganisation, CDC ceased making direct investments and became purely a fund of funds investment company. During this period it grew in value from £1.2 billion to £2.8 billion.