KCB Group recorded a gain of 3.1 billion shillings (22.6 million USD) on the sale of its 100% stake in the National Bank of Kenya (NBK) to Access Bank, finalized in May 2025. The transaction, valued at approximately 13.2 billion shillings (96.4 million USD), reflects the price paid by Access Bank being higher than the acquisition cost and capital injected by KCB into NBK.
“The gain of 3.1 billion shillings (22.6 million USD) corresponds to the difference between what we invested in NBK and what we received,” said Lawrence Kimathi, the group’s chief financial officer, without specifying the total proceeds from the sale or the exact acquisition and capitalization cost of the subsidiary.
The sale allowed KCB to pay a special dividend of 4 shillings per share (0.03 USD) in mid-2025, followed by a double increase in the final dividend, bringing the total payment to 7 shillings per share (0.05 USD), compared to 3 shillings (0.02 USD) in 2024.
As a reminder, KCB had acquired NBK through a share swap in 2020, for over 5 billion shillings (36.5 million USD), and subsequently injected over 8 billion shillings (58.4 million USD) to support its capitalization, including a loan-to-equity conversion of 3.45 billion shillings (25.2 million USD) in 2022, to meet regulatory requirements.
The sale of NBK helped reduce the group’s non-performing loan (NPL) ratio to its lowest level since December 2021, with gross non-performing loans down 6.15% to 211.8 billion shillings (1.54 billion USD), compared to 225.6 billion (1.65 billion USD) a year earlier.
The group operates in six regional markets (Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Burundi, and DRC) which contributed to 29.5% of KCB’s net profit of 66.8 billion shillings (487.6 million USD) for 2025.
