The bank said the move forms part of a strategy to embed recent acquisitions, improve efficiencies and extract greater value from transactions completed between 2022 and 2025.
Image: Armand Hough/ Independent Newspapers
African Bank has decided not to proceed with the acquisition of Eskom’s staff home loan portfolio and related assets, ending a transaction first announced in December 2024.
In a statement issued on Friday, African Bank said its board of directors had opted to halt the deal as the lender focuses on consolidating the organic and inorganic growth achieved over the past five years.
The bank said the move forms part of a strategy to embed recent acquisitions, improve efficiencies and extract greater value from transactions completed between 2022 and 2025.
“As previously communicated to shareholders and noteholders through SENS announcements published on 5 December 2024 and 10 July 2025, respectively, the transaction remained subject to certain conditions precedent,” the bank said.
“As these conditions were not fulfilled within the agreed timeframe, the agreements have automatically lapsed and are no longer of any force or effect.”
African Bank interim CEO Zweli Manyathi said the decision reflected the lender’s disciplined approach to acquisitions and capital allocation.
“In recent years we have completed a number of strategic transactions including Grindrod Bank (2022), Ubank’s asset and liability acquisition (2022) and two divisions from Sasfin Bank (2024/2025), that reinforce our focus on opportunities aligned to our long-term strategy and enhanced customer value,” Manyathi said.
He added that the acquisitions support African Bank’s ambition to transform itself from an unsecured lender into a diversified, digital-enabled business and commercial banking group.
African Bank also thanked Eskom for its “professionalism, collaboration and constructive engagement” during the transaction process.
African Bank was selected as the preferred bidder, and the sale of the loan book agreement regulating the proposed transaction was concluded in April 2025, subject to certain conditions.
When the proposed transaction was announced in December 2024, Eskom said it would dispose of its staff home loan book and assets held in Eskom Finance Company, as well as its interest in Nqaba Finance 1 RF Limited.
The portfolio, valued at about R5.7 billion at the time, consisted of home loans granted to Eskom employees, with repayments deducted directly from salaries.
The disposal formed part of conditions linked to the R250bn debt relief package granted to Eskom by the National Treasury in 2023, which required the utility to exit its home loan business.
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