Luanda, Aug. 28, 2024 (Lusa) - Angola's Competition Regulatory Authority (ARC) unanimously approved the merger of Access Bank Angola, S.A. (formerly Finibanco) and Standard Chartered Bank Angola (SCBA), considering that the deal does not create significant obstacles to competition.
The ARC board of directors analysed the process and ‘unanimously decided not to oppose the aforementioned concentration act,’ according to the decision which Lusa saw on Wednesday.
According to the Angolan competition regulator, the merger of the two banking institutions ‘is not likely to create significant obstacles to effective competition’ in the market.
The ARC had been notified on 3 April of the proposed merger between Access Bank Angola, S.A (acquirer) and SCBA.
Access Bank Angola is owned by the Nigerian Access Bank Plc, which in 2023 completed the purchase of the shares of the Portuguese Finibanco from the also Portuguese bank Montepio (with 51% of the shares), as well as from the shareholders Mário Palhares (who held 35% of the share capital), Francisco Simão Júnior (4%), João Avelino dos Santos (4%) and another 5% dispersed, bringing together 99.80% of the bank's shares, according to the economic newspaper Expansão.
This Nigerian bank also acquired the activities of the British SCBA, taking 60% of its share capital. As for the remaining 40%, Access Bank has proposed to Empresa Nacional de Seguros de Angola (ENSA), which owns the shares, to take over all of the bank's holdings.
The publication points out that ENSA is part of the Privatisation Programme (ProPriv) and intends to privatise 51% of its shares on the stock exchange in 2024.
For the ARC, the parties involved in the merger operate at the same level in the markets and, with the implementation, there is an ‘irrelevant horizontal overlap’ of activities related to investment, corporate and retail banking.
The assessment, the Angolan regulator emphasises in its decision, ‘demonstrates that there are no conditions for strategic action on the part of the acquirer that could restrict or distort competition’ and that ‘there are no indications that could create significant obstacles to effective competition or the potential relevant market identified’.
In its decision, the competition regulator also recalls that last April, it asked the National Bank of Angola (BNA), the regulator of the financial and non-financial sector, to comment on the aforementioned merger and did not receive a response after the 15-working-day deadline had expired.
Notification to the sector regulator (BNA) ‘is obligatory’ but granting an opinion on a given merger ‘is not obligatory, nor is it binding for the purposes of the ARC's decision’.
DYAS/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
