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How billionaire Khimji family sold Fidelity Bank for Sh100
Saturday December 30 2023
The court battle between Sultan Khimji and SBM Bank has thrust the Central Bank of Kenya and its former Governor Patrick Njoroge into the eye of a storm. PHOTOS | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
On November 16, 2016, tension broke out during negotiations between Fidelity Bank and Mauritian SBM Bank, which was seeking to take over the Kenyan lender.
Previous talks had placed Fidelity Bank’s value at Sh1.3 billion, which would have seen the lender’s owners pocket a tidy sum in initial payments pending SBM’s takeover.
Read: Fidelity Bank shareholders dig in for cancelling of SBM deal, cite coercion
The initial talks had seen SBM propose further payments after recovery of bad loans, but on November 16, SBM had changed its tune and claimed that Fidelity Bank was worth Sh1 billion.
The Mauritians had proposed injecting Sh700 million to cater for bad loans, and Sh300 million into legal costs associated with recovery of defaulted loans.