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KCB Group Ltd market value increased to Sh135.3 billion Friday after it listed an additional 142,979,717 shares held by the National Bank of Kenya—which it acquired on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

The value of the company jumped by Sh7.17 billion from Sh128.13 billion which it recorded on Thursday thereby pushing its market capitalisation nearer to Equity Group’s market value of Sh143.4 billion.

The group’s share price remained unchanged at Sh42.15 per share. Following the new development, the group now stands third after Safaricom Ltd and Equity Bank which have a market value of 1.12 trillion and 142.4 billion respectively.

KCB Group chairman Andrew Kairu said due to the listing, NBK shareholders who swapped their shares for those of KCB, will now be able to freely trade the new stocks at the bourse.

Capital market

He said the listing will enhance the vibrancy of the capital market and will be instrumental in fuelling continued business growth and the execution of the bank’s expansion plans.

KCB received consent to acquire NBK from shareholders holding 297,130,033 issued ordinary shares out of 338,781,200 issued ordinary shares, representing 87.7 per cent by the offer closure date on August 30.

“We have started the process of integrating NBK into KCB, an exercise that we expected to be completed within the next 24 months, focusing on systems, processes, people and institutional governance,” Kairu said.