AfE 2024
Getting M&A right in Africa is not easy – big-ticket transactions are rare, and deal flow tends to come in fits and starts – but Standard Bank has got it down to a fine art.
The South Africa-based lender’s mergers-and-advisory team is made up of 40 full-time employees, and focuses primarily on seven markets, most notably South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana. Collectively, the team completed six M&A transactions in the full year 2023 – more than any other financial institution – worth a total of $8.43 billion, for a 33.8% share of the market. In terms of inbound-Africa M&A, it completed five deals collectively worth $3.29 billion.
Standard Bank is led by chief executive Sim Tshabalala.
It completed a number of standout transactions during the awards period. It was joint financial adviser to British petroleum company Vivo Energy on its acquisition of Engen, South Africa’s largest gas-station chain, from Malaysia’s Petronas and Johannesburg-based investment firm Phembani Group.