Chapter 651 United Bank of Africa

New Year's Day 2009 has just passed, January 2nd, Friday.

Barclays Bank announced that in order to cope with profit losses, it will cut branches and sell African branches. Barclays Bank President Robert Diamond said that in the next stage, their focus will return to the British and American markets.

This decision was made not only because Barclays Bank needed to increase cash flow due to the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis, but also because of the depreciation of the South African currency, which resulted in the performance of Barclays Bank's African business in the past two years being unsatisfactory. satisfy.

Barclays Bank's African business is mainly Barclays Africa Group - in 2005, Barclays Bank invested US$4.5 billion in 56.4% of the shares of Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (ABSA), and later increased its shareholding to 62.3% and changed its name. for Barclays Africa Group.

Barclays Africa Group is headquartered in Johannesburg, the capital of South Africa. It is a listed company on the Johannesburg Exchange and the fourth largest bank in South Africa, after Standard Bank of South Africa, First Rand Bank of South Africa and Nedbank South Africa, with 45,000 employees. , 1,267 branches in 12 countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana and Uganda.

Finally, the United Bank of West Africa reached an agreement with Barclays Bank to acquire 62.3% of Barclays Africa Group's shares held by Barclays Bank for US$3.5 billion.

In addition, the United Bank of West Africa will acquire their 17.7% stake in Barclays Africa Group from the United Bank of South Africa Group, another shareholder of Barclays Africa Group, for US$1 billion.

After completing this acquisition, United Bank of West Africa will hold 80% of the shares of Barclays Africa Group.

The funds required for this acquisition will be contributed by the West Africa Group and the Kolo National Development Investment Company, shareholders of the United Bank of West Africa, in a ratio of 8:2.

Afterwards, United Bank for West Africa will merge its businesses with Barclays Africa Group to form United Bank for Africa (UBA).

After the merger, the West African Group and the Kolo National Development and Investment Company will hold a total of 78.77% of the shares of the United Bank for Africa.

And the United Bank for Africa will have branches in more than 15 countries in Africa, spreading across the African region, thus becoming an international bank in Africa.

In addition, the United Bank for Africa will also be listed on the Brita Exchange within this year, thus becoming a dual-listed company on the Brita Exchange and the Johannesburg Exchange.

"United Bank of West Africa is the first bank in Africa to cooperate with payment software such as Paypal and Klarna Pay. We have always been committed to using technology to improve people's lives and will serve more international African people in the future..."

Hector Pate, CEO of the United Bank for Africa, said in an interview:

"After completing the merger, we will also serve more African companies, help them with financing and development, and contribute to Africa's economic development."

Prior to this acquisition of Barclays Africa Group, United Bank of West Africa had already established branches in Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire in countries surrounding Kolo, and the merged United Bank of Africa will also continue to Expand your business across Africa.

And support more high-quality companies to be listed and financed on the Bursa Stock Exchange.

It is worth mentioning that during this economic crisis, the currencies of most African countries, including the West African CFA franc, have depreciated significantly. However, because they have sufficient foreign exchange and gold reserves, the exchange rate of the Colo shilling has remained relatively strong. ——The small depreciation is also to maintain the export of domestically produced goods in Kolo.

Coupled with Kolo's increasingly open monetary policy, Kolo shillings have become a "hard currency" that residents of many surrounding countries are willing to hold.

This has also made the Bursa Stock Exchange more attractive to some corporate financing, and the number of foreign investors opening accounts and investing in the Bursa Stock Exchange is also increasing.

In order to serve overseas investors, the Bursa Exchange has set up branches in some capitals of surrounding countries to provide local investors with services including account opening and redemption. Even because of the technical support of LOMX Group, after opening an account, Users can complete transactions directly through the Internet.

There are currently more than 50 companies listed on the Bursa Stock Exchange.

…

"Our negotiations with American International Group have come to fruition. They will sell AIA to us for US$22 billion..."

In the luxury apartment in the Financial City, after Barron visited Wang Wanting and their child Eden, who lived here, she also talked to Barron about the acquisition of AIA Insurance Company.

Now Wang Wanting, because she still needs to spend time with her children, will not return to Barron's side as his personal assistant - Zhang Junning is doing a good job in this job now.

Wang Wanting became responsible for the affairs of the Cavendish Trust Fund.

This is why she talked to Barron about the acquisition of AIA by Friendship Insurance Group, which now belongs to the Cavendish Trust.

As for the funds for the acquisition of AIA this time, the Cavendish Trust Fund will provide US$17 billion (of which US$10 billion is pledged by the shares of other companies held by the Cavendish Trust Fund, from Barclays Bank and Standard Chartered Bank loans), Chinese company Tianhe Capital invested US$5 billion for the acquisition.

After the acquisition is completed, AIA Insurance Company will be merged into AIA Insurance Group, of which Cavendish Trust Fund holds 80% of the shares of the insurance group and Tianhe Capital holds 20% of the shares of the insurance group.

China is the largest single market for AIA, and Tianhe Capital’s holdings will be beneficial to AIA Group’s business in China in the future.

As for the bank loan, it is actually not difficult for Barron to repay it.

After all, insurance companies mainly make money by collecting premiums for investment and then settling claims from users...

For example, many life insurances have the meaning of "regular savings". In addition to related pension insurances, their accumulated funds are actually very huge.

Through investment, the additional income earned can quickly repay these bank loans.

At the current stage of the subprime mortgage crisis, whether it is the stock market or other securities, almost all have reached a low point. It can be said that if you enter the bargain hunting stage now, you can buy whatever you want, and you can make cyclical rises in a few years, bringing you huge profits. profit.

Of course, both Youcheng Insurance Group and AIA have already suffered losses in their previous investments. Next, they need to increase the promotion efforts of their insurance salesmen to provide more "attractive" insurance forms. , to attract some new funds.