Mauritian insurance company MUA Ltd has finally received regulatory go ahead to acquire Nairobi based Saham Assurance company in a deal worth around KSh1.2 billion.
The firm on Monday said that it had concluded the transaction which began with the January’s signing of the Sales Purchase Agreement after it got approvals from the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA, Kenya), the COMESA Competition Commission and the South African Reserve Bank as well as the Competition Authority of Kenya.
Earlier on the January SPA had attracted regulatory caution after the firm reportedly announced the deal before notifying IRA. This lead to its bosses being summoned by the Insurance regulatory authority after the regulator termed the announcement ‘immature.’
The move is second such acquisition by the Mauritian biggest underwriter by market share, marking its expansion into the East African market where it had acquired of Phoenix Transafrica Holdings (with a presence in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda) in 2014.
Saham Kenya, (previously owned by the Pan-African insurance group Sanlam Pan Africa) has a market share of 1.54 per cent with Sh1.62 billion in premiums and is expected to combine with the MUA insurance in Kenya to boost market presence to about three percent. The move has been seen by analysist as a good move considering that the Kenyan insurance market is on a steady rise.
