Actis sells stake in Dfcu

By Samuel Sanya

dfcu Bank has voluntarily suspended trading on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) as British firm Actis/CDC, the major shareholder, offloads a large stake in the bank to Norwegian and Dutch entities.

Actis, the London-based equity fund recently relinquished a large stake in utility firm Umeme.

Kelvin Kiyingi, the acting director communications at the Bank of Uganda, confirmed that the Central Bank has approved the shareholder restructuring, adding that dfcu Bank customers will not be affected in anyway.

“As a result of potential shareholder restructuring and the time required to obtain all the necessary securities market and banking approvals, dfcu has been granted permission to voluntarily suspend the trading of its shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange for a period of up to four weeks,” Agnes Isharaza, the dfcu Group company secretary, said in a statement.

The Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) will retain a 15% stake, down from 60% after the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (NORFUND) and Rabo Development B.V. acquire 17.48% and 27.54% stakes in the bank respectively.

Rabo Development B.V is a subsidiary of the Rabobank of the Netherlands. The purchase is part of the Dutch bank’s expansion strategy into developing countries.

Kenneth Kitariko, the African Alliance Uganda boss, noted that the voluntary suspension from trading on the securities markets will stem speculative transactions.

dfcu shares were selling for sh1,030 per share on Monday when the suspension was announced.