Major shareholders of NCBA Group bought an extra 449,509 shares in the bank for Sh38.8 million before South Africa’s Nedbank Group made an offer to acquire a 66 percent stake in the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm.
The shares were purchased at an average price of Sh86.45, placing the investors in a position to book substantial gains from selling to Nedbank.
The trades also allow the unnamed investors to increase their ownership in Nedbank and NCBA, with the ongoing transaction initially structured to allow one to retain 34 percent of his holdings in NCBA and sell the rest for cash and shares of Nedbank.
The South African firm submitted its offer on January 21, 2026 to acquire 1.087 billion shares of NCBA at a price ranging from Sh100 to Sh105 per share depending on whether an investor takes cash only or cash and shares in the multinational.
Those to be paid in cash only have been offered a price of Sh105 per share.
The additional NCBA shares were purchased by investors who have committed to sell their holdings to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed firm.
“During the period between 28 November 2025 and the date of this offer document [April 17, 2026], the following NCBA shareholders who have signed irrevocable undertakings acquired additional NCBA shares on the dates and at the prices set out below,” Nedbank said in its offer document.
“Save for the above transactions, there have been no other transactions involving NCBA shares undertaken by any other NCBA shareholders who have signed irrevocable undertakings.”
The share purchases started on December 4, 2025 and terminated on the eve of Nedbank’s offer.
Investors bought the shares through a Kestrel Capital nominee account and investment partnership of D&M Management Services LLP.
Most of the shares were bought through Kestrel.
NCBA shareholders can tender 66 percent of their holdings to Nedbank. Out of this pool of shares, 80 percent of the units will be converted into Nedbank shares at a rate of 4.02994 shares for every 100 shares.
The Nedbank shares are priced at 250 rand (Sh1,928.5) using the deal's exchange rate.
The remaining 20 percent of the shares will be bought in cash at a rate of Sh2,100 for every 100 shares or Sh21 apiece. NCBA owners may apply to sell more shares to Nedbank in case there is undersubscription, with up to 75 percent of the additional stocks being accepted.
