Sale of major South African bank collapses

The transaction that would have seen Bidvet sell its banking business to Access Bank has been terminated.

According to Bidvest, Access Bank did not fulfil certain conditions by the transaction’s contractually agreed long stop date, resulting in the deal’s termination. 

However, a separate transaction to sell Bidvest’s insurance business, Bidvest Life, to a private equity-led financial services consortium is still on track.

On Monday, 9 February, Bidvest informed shareholders of the termination of Bidvest Bank’s sale to Access Bank.

The deal, first announced in 2024, forms part of a larger strategy to dispose of Bidvest’s financial services segment, with plans to dispose of it in three parts through the sales of FinGlobal, Bidvest Life and Bidvest Bank.

In April 2025, Bidvest sold 100% of the share capital of FinGlobal to Momentum for R201 million. 

The sale of Bidvest Life is on track to be concluded, with the company having received a binding offer of R130 million for the business.

Bidvest said in its 9 February announcement that the key conditions for the deal, including regulatory approvals, are required to finalise the transaction, and that all parties are working toward achieving them.

However, the sale of Bidvest Bank has proven more difficult from the start, thanks to the business’s size and the regulatory scrutiny given towards the ownership of banks in South Africa. 

In December 2024, Access Bank agreed to acquire 100% of Bidvest Bank’s share capital for R2.8 billion.

Domiciled in Nigeria, Access Bank is a full-service commercial bank with over 60 million customers, a network of 700 branches, and operations across 23 countries.

The deal to buy Bidvest Bank would have allowed Access Bank to repeat its expansion-by-acquisition strategy, which it has applied in other parts of Africa.

However, this deal has now been terminated. Bidvest explained that the parties had been actively working together to secure the necessary approvals.

“It is, however, unfortunate that certain conditions were not fulfilled by Access Bank plc by the contractually agreed long stop date, resulting in the termination of the transaction,” Bidvest said.

The company said it has now relaunched the disposal process and remains confident in its ability to successfully execute the sale.

“Bidvest remains the sole shareholder and will continue to support Bidvest Bank to ensure it

continues to be financially sound and operationally stable during this transition period,” it said. 

“Bidvest Bank remains adequately capitalised, with all key ratios above minimum regulatory hurdles. The well-being of employees and maintaining high-quality service standards for all clients remain priorities.”

The company added that Bidvest Life and Bidvest Bank will continue to be disclosed as a disposal group held for sale in its financial statements.