Getting M&A right in Africa is not easy – big-ticket transactions are rare, and deal flow tends to come in fits and starts – but Standard Bank has got it down to a fine art.
The South Africa-based lender’s mergers-and-advisory team is made up of 40 full-time employees, and focuses primarily on seven markets, most notably South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana. Collectively, the team completed six M&A transactions in the full year 2023 – more than any other financial institution – worth a total of $8.43 billion, for a 33.8% share of the market. In terms of inbound-Africa M&A, it completed five deals collectively worth $3.29 billion.
Standard Bank is led by chief executive Sim Tshabalala.
It completed a number of standout transactions during the awards period. It was joint financial adviser to British petroleum company Vivo Energy on its acquisition of Engen, South Africa’s largest gas-station chain, from Malaysia’s Petronas and Johannesburg-based investment firm Phembani Group. The move will create a group with 3,900 service stations across 27 African states.
Part of the deal saw Phembani buy a 21% stake in Engen, with the aim of creating a pan-African energy champion. Standard Bank played a central role in the transaction: conducting commercial negotiations, creating a public-interest framework and engaging with relevant stakeholders including South Africa’s anti-trust regulator.
Standard Bank’s M&A team completed six transactions in the full year 2023 – more than any other financial institution – worth a total of $8.43 billion, for a 33.8% share of the market
Standard Bank was also sole financial adviser to China’s Huaxin Cement on its acquisition of Durban-based Natal Portland Cement, underlining its ability to originate and execute on complex cross-border deals. The $231.6 million deal saw Shanghai- and Hong Kong-listed Huaxin buy the South African asset from Brazilian rival InterCement. It expanded Huaxin’s reach into southern Africa: the firm was already present in Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi.
In other notable 2023 deals, Standard Bank was sole financial adviser, sponsoring broker, lead acceptance agent and paying bank to UK multinational spirits firm Diageo in its successful $182 million deal to boost its stake in Nairobi-listed East African Breweries to 65%, from 50%, completed in March 2023. It marked the largest single trade ever completed on Kenya’s main board.
And it also helped Kenyan financial services firm Equity Group Holdings (EGH) to complete the full acquisition of all assets and liabilities held by Nairobi-based rival Spire Bank. Standard Bank was transaction adviser to EGH and Equity Bank, overseeing the structure and completion of the deal, which was finalised in February 2023.
