According to Reuters, Equity Bank could consider listing overseas as their rapid, exponential expansion puts the company in danger of outgrowing the Nairobi Stock Exchange’s capacity in terms of liquidity and efficiency constraints.
Equity is Kenya’s second largest bank in terms of profitability and their loan book, has operations in five east African countries and specializes at providing banking services targeted at the lower end of the market. At the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) it has become one of Nairobi’s most actively traded stocks and it often attracts of foreign investors.
According to its CEO, the bank would then turn to London, South Africa or New York as listing destinations. The exchanges have experienced companies with larger market capitalisations.