[caption id="attachment_3760" align="aligncenter" width="594" caption="image from www.familybank.co.ke"][/caption]

Family Bank is seeking to list at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. The bank started as Family Finance Building Society in 1984 with the vision to serve the needs of the mass market which had been ignored by the mainstream banks. Over the years it has grown from a society to a fully fledged commercial bank with a customer base of over 800,000 customers.

Recently the bank sold shares to staff, directors and customers through a private placement creating over 7,000 new shareholders and raising over Ksh500 million in the process. Family Bank is well capitalized, profitable and financially sound. The bank now intends to invite more members of the public to become shareholders and is seeking regulatory approval for an IPO at the Nairobi Stock Exchange.

What will it take for Family Bank to be listed on the NSE?

If Family Bank are to be listed on the NSE they would most probably be classified under the Main Investment Market Segment, this is the one of the markets for issuing shares and the requirements are:

• The Bank must be a company limited by shares and registered under the Companies Act (Cap 486) as a public limited company.
• The Bank must have a minimum authorized, issued and fully paid up share capital of Kshs 50 million and net assets of Kshs 100 million before the public offering of shares.
• The Bank must have published audited and financial statements (complying with international accounting standards) for an accounting period ending on a date not more than 3 months prior to the proposed date of the offer.

Click here to read all the other requirements.

What benefit will Family Bank get from listing?

By listing the bank will be able to:

• Access to capital for growth: listing will give the bank the opportunity to raise capital to fund acquisitions as well as expansion throughout Africa.
• Boost its profile: listing generally heightens a company’s public profile with customers, suppliers, the media and investors thus creating additional exposure for your company both locally and internationally.
• Create value and liquidity for shareholders: because a company’s value is independently assessed, shareholders can realize their investment, liquidity is stimulated and your shareholder base may be broadened.

Should Family Bank be listed on the NSE it will be the tenth bank to list joining Barclays, Standard Chartered, KCB, Diamond Trust Bank, Co-op Bank, NIC Bank, Equity Bank, CFC Stanbic and National Bank of Kenya in the banking segment of the securities exchange.