Barclays, Absa merger approved
FINANCE Minister Pravin Gordhan has approved the merger of the eight Barclays Africa operations with Absa Group, on condition that the new entity to be formed be legally constituted in SA.
MINISTER of Finance Pravin Gordhan said yesterday that he had approved the merger of the eight Barclays Africa operations with Absa Group, on condition that the new entity to be formed, known as Barclays Africa Group, be legally constituted in SA.
The remaining regulatory process in SA is approval from the Competition Commission, which is still waiting for notification.
The commission said yesterday that it had not yet received any notification from Absa Group about the merger.
The merger was approved by SA’s Ministry of Finance on the recommendation of the South African Reserve Bank.
The statement issued by National Treasury came after Absa issued a notice on Friday stating that it was changing its corporate timetable for the deal.
The group will be listed on the JSE as Barclays Africa Group, but retail division in SA will retain Absa name
Absa, which is buying eight Barclays Africa operations in eight African geographies in a share deal worth R18.3bn, had hoped that by yesterday it would have finalised the name changes.
This would have made Friday the last day to trade under the Absa Group name.
On April 15, the combined entity had been scheduled to trade its shares under the new name Barclays Africa Group.
The group will be listed on the JSE as Barclays Africa Group, but the retail division in SA will retain the Absa name.
Absa shares ended the day up 2.89% to R152.50 yesterday.
Meanwhile, speculation increased yesterday that FirstRand’s plan to buy Merchant Bank of Ghana was being delayed by authorities in the West African country.
Ghana’s RadioXYZonline.com had mentioned, without quoting any sources, that Ghana’s central bank was not satisfied with some information in Merchant Bank of Ghana’s 2011 financial report.
FirstRand spokeswoman Sam Moss said yesterday the bank would not comment on speculation and would update its shareholders once it had received formal response from the regulators in Ghana.
Bank of Ghana and Merchant Bank of Ghana had not responded to queries by yesterday.
Although there has been “talk” of delays, FirstRand CEO Sizwe Nxasana indicated in February that he hoped the deal would go through by the end of this month.
One Johannesburg-based analyst said if there were some delays then Merchant Bank of Ghana would have issued a cautionary in Ghana.
FirstRand shares ended up 0.63% at R32 yesterday.