Access Bank Plc has failed in its quest to acquire one of South Africa’s commercial bank, Bidvest Bank, which announced that the deal between the two entities has collapsed.
On Monday, Bidvets Group, the parent body of the South Africa’s lender disclosed to shareholders that the deal could no longer go ahead.
The Group stressed that it will now look for prospective buyers after Access Bank missed the deadline to consummate the deal as earlier agreed by the two commercial entities.
The South African entity said the Nigeria lender failed to meet the contractual agreement signed by the parties, following discussion which started in 2024.
It said the bank is now prepared to open discussion with new buyers, including Access Bank if the terms are favorable to the parties in the future.
“It is unfortunate that certain conditions were not fulfilled by Access Bank plc by the contractually agreed longstop date, resulting in the termination of the transaction,” the South African bank said
Adding, “Bidvest has now relaunched the disposal process. We remain confident in our ability to successfully execute this disposal and will endeavour to accelerate transaction timeframes.”
The Nigerian bank has yet to issue a statement on why the deal collapsed, but sources informed the magazine that deal with Bidvest was not approved by the Central bank of Nigeria, CBN, for regulatory reasons.
Sources informed that Access Bank had reached an agreement wit Bidvest with the aim that it will scale CBN regulatory hurdles, but the approval did not come for months leading to termination of the deal by the south African entity.
Meanwhile, financial analysts insist the development portends a broader implication for the Nigerien bank which has been trying to expand its portfolios to Southern part of the continent in the last few years, apart from its impact on Nigeria/ South Africa bilateral economic relations.
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