According to the bank’s top executive KCB will open one branch in Butare, Cyangugu, Ruhengeri, Gisenyi, Nygatare and two more branches in Kigali Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) is ready to float its shares on the Rwanda stock market, but the initiative awaits an endorsement from the shareholders’ annual general meeting. The move would allow Rwandans to purchase shares in East Africa’s largest indigenously owned bank, without necessarily trading on USE and NSE which are Uganda and Kenya’s stock market respectively.
According to the bank’s top executive KCB will open one branch in Butare, Cyangugu, Ruhengeri, Gisenyi, Nygatare and two more branches in Kigali
Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) is ready to float its shares on the Rwanda stock market, but the initiative awaits an endorsement from the shareholders’ annual general meeting.
The move would allow Rwandans to purchase shares in East Africa’s largest indigenously owned bank, without necessarily trading on USE and NSE which are Uganda and Kenya’s stock market respectively.
USE is an acronym that stands for Uganda Securities Exchange while NSE is the Nairobi Stock Exchange. Speaking in an interview, last week, Maurice K. Toroitich, Managing Director of KCB Rwanda S.A said he was optimistic that operations in Rwanda will successfully enjoy the benefits of cross-listing by the end of this year once the decision is approved by shareholders.
KCB Rwanda SA is a subsidiary of the KCB Group with its maiden offices in Nairobi. It started operations in Rwanda towards the end of last year and has only one branch based in Kigali. Management is targeting seven extra branches across the country this year.
According to Toroitich, they will open up one branch in Butare, Cyangugu, Ruhengeri, Gisenyi, Nygatare and two more branches in Kigali.
Cross-listing on the Rwandan bourse will also require approval from the Rwanda Capital Market Advisory Council (CMAC), the country’s stock market regulators.
Robert Mathu, Executive Director, CMAC says that they have put in place sufficient infrastructure to facilitate any company that would like to list.
"We have the infrastructure in place. We have the listing rules, trading rules….what we don’t have is the listed stocks,” Mathu said recently.
KCB expressed interest of listing on the regional stock exchanges last year. They appointed a consortium that comprises of Standard Investment Bank and Faida Investment Bank as the transaction advisor for the bank’s regional cross-listing. Walker Kontos are the legal advisors.
KCB is listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) and last year it cross-listed its shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE).
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