After buying west Africa's Beneficial group last year, Britain's venerable insurance institution Prudential could take a stake in bancassurance firm Orabank.

In all discretion, the British financial services giant Prudential has launched studies on the health of Orabank, in the event of taking a stake in the company. The interest of "Pru", long led by the Franco-Ivorian Tidjane Thiam, comes at a time when the British institution will pass under the presidency of Gordon Brown's former Secretary of State for Trade, Shriti Vadera, who was born in Uganda. In August, the insurance heavyweight also announced that it would sell its U.S. arm to expand its business in emerging markets in all directions.

Already present in Kenya and Nigeria, Prudential made its first foray into French-speaking Africa in 2019 by acquiring the insurance company Beneficial, active in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire and Togo. The context is particularly favorable because the majority of African insurers are struggling to comply with the new regulations of the Inter-African Conference of Insurance Markets (Cima), which obliges them to have a minimum required capital of 5 billion CFA francs from May 2021 (Africa Intelligence of 11/09/19 and 30/04/20).

The cards reshuffled in Orabank's shareholding

Prudential's interest comes at a time when Orabank's capital is in full recomposition: last year, the Emerging Capital Partners (ECP) fund sold the majority of the institution's capital, i.e. 61.45%, to the General Pension Fund for Ivorian State Employees (see our revelations). lations, Africa Intelligence of 20/11/19).

The operation, first invalidated by the Banking Commission of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) at its session on 18 September, was once again mentioned on 9 December by the Commission, this time without a hitch, unlike the September session, which was punctuated by incidents. Serge Ekué, the president of the West African Development Bank (BOAD), on a trip to Abidjan in early December, had previously discussed the file with the members of the banking commission, to whom he assured that his institution would remain a strategic shareholder of Orabank.

In addition to Prudential, Mahamadou Boukoungou, the founder of the Ebomaf group, also tried to enter the capital of Orabank, but was opposed to an end of inadmissibility by the shareholders (Africa Intelligence of 27/11/20).