Equity Bank Congo


Equity Bank Congo, formerly ProCredit Bank DRCongo, is a commercial bank in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As of May 2015, it was the seventh largest commercial bank in the country, with assets exceeding US$200 million and shareholders' equity of US$25 million. At that time, its customer base exceeded 170,000. It is owned by Kenya-based Equity Group Holdings Limited.

Overview

According to 2015 tax filings by Equity Group Holdings Limited, Procredit Bank had an asset base of about US$228.4 million, a loan book of about US$132.67 million, customer deposits of about US$185.5 million, and shareholder's equity valued at US$29 million at the time it was acquired by EGHL. Procredit made an after-tax profit valued at US$5.525 million in Calendar Year 2015. *Note: US$1.00 = KSh100.3, on 30 March 2016
As of August 2018, Equity Bank Congo was reported to be the most profitable subsidiary in the Equity Bank Group, during the first six months of calendar year 2018.

History

Before May 2015, three corporate entities jointly owned 79 percent of Procredit's stock: Procredit Bank, the German Investment Corporation, and Stichting DOEN. The remaining 21 percent was held by KfW and the International Finance Corporation.
On 26 May 2015, Equity Group Holdings Limited of Kenya, a large financial services conglomerate announced that it had agreed to pay US$60 million for 79 percent shareholding in Procredit Bank. EGHL has a customer base exceeding 9.2 million in the five East African countries it serves, making it the largest commercial bank on the African continent by customer numbers. The deal was concluded following regulatory approval by Kenyan and Congolese authorities, which was obtained in September 2015.
In September 2019, Equity Bank Group began talks to acquire a controlling stake in Banque Commerciale du Congo, the second-largest commercial bank in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. If and when the transaction is concluded, the new acquisition is expected to be merged with the existing Equity Bank Congo.
In November 2019, Business Daily Africa reported that Equity Bank Group had agreed to pay US$106 million to the George Arthur Forrest Group, in exchange of 66.5 percent ownership in BCDC. In addition, Equity Group Holdings was contemporaneously in negotiations with KfW, to acquire an extra 7.6 percent stake in Equity Bank Congo. All these acquisitions are subject to regulatory and shareholder approval from Kenya, DR Congo and COMESA.

Ownership

, the shareholding in the bank is illustrated in the table below:
RankName of OwnerPercentage Ownership from in 2017
1Equity Group Holdings Limited
85.9
2KfW
8.1
3International Finance Corporation
6.0
Total
100.00

Branches

As of May 2015, PBD maintained 15 networked service branches. At that time, EGHL planned to increase the branch list to 30. As of August 2018, the bank's branch list had increased to 41.

Rebranding

In July 2018, nearly three years since the acquisition by EGHL, Procredit Bank re-branded to Equity Bank Congo, to reflect the prevailing shareholding.