This archive report was first published on 17 November 2019.
On November 7, 2019, the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC), an affiliate of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), formally rejected a bid by Toronto-based Amassment Corporation to take over the collapsed Imperial Bank's assets.
The bid, which was made on September 25, 2019, proposed that Amassment Corporation would be the sole holder of ordinary shares of a new company that would take over Imperial's deposits and loans estimated at Sh49 billion.
Depositors were to be given preference shares in the company, representing their full claims, and were to earn an unspecified amount of dividends over the years from loan recoveries.
However, the CBK rejected the bid, citing that the law does not allow the sale of a collapsed bank's assets to a non-bank company.
According to KDIC's chief executive Mohamud Ahmed, the PE firm's terms were unacceptable, and the agency had tried to do due diligence on them but still didn't know the institution very well.
Amassment Corporation had proposed that it would be flexible on the terms of its proposition, but the CBK ultimately rejected the bid.
It is worth noting that KDIC continues to manage a substantial part of Imperial's assets and liabilities, having earlier reached an agreement to transfer Sh4 billion of the collapsed lender's deposits to KCB Group.
