Burkinabe businessman Simon Tiemtoré has just finalized the acquisition of BNP Paribas subsidiaries in Burkina Faso and Guinea. Its banking group, Vista, thus sets foot on the WAEMU market, and amplifies its footprint on the Guinean market.
The International Bank for Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Burkina Faso (BICIAB) and the International Bank for Commerce and Industry of Guinea (BICIGUI) are definitely leaving the BNP Paribas network to come under the Vista banking group owned by Burkinabe businessman Simon Tiemtoré. The process of acquiring the majority stakes of the French bank in these two establishments has just been finalized, indicates a press release from Vista sent to La Tribune Afrique, without however specifying the terms of this deal in negotiations for more than a year.

Entry into WAEMU and leadership in Guinea
This transaction thus expands Vista's footprint in West Africa, introducing it to the WAEMU market via Burkina Faso. The banking group was previously established in Sierra Leone with 19 branches, in Gambia with 9 branches and in Guinea, its largest market, with 22 branches. Up to now the fifth largest bank on the Guinean market, the Vista group claims leadership “both in terms of total assets and the number of branches”, after the complete integration of BICIGUI into its network. Here, Vista (52% of the shares) will share the funding round with the Guinean State, Proparco, Guinean private investors and bank staff.

"The acquisition of BICIGUI and BICIAB also allows us to benefit from their excellent portfolio of 'high net worth' clients and large renowned companies, which adds to our current offer, which is more focused on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and retail banking,” said Simon Tiemtoré, President of Vista Group and President of Lilium Capital, a New York-based investment firm dedicated to Africa. "We now have the scale necessary to implement our commercial strategy, oriented towards digital and intra-African trade, in West Africa" , he added, welcoming this new configuration offers chances for its banking group to take advantage of the Continental Free Trade Area (Zlecaf) which the African Union has planned to come into force is scheduled for January 1, 2021.

Goal: 15 African countries by 2025
It was in the spring of 2019 that the French BNP Paribas announced its strategy of refocusing on Africa with, as a result, the sale of five African subsidiaries. Basically, Simon Tiemtoré aimed to buy the Burkinabè, Guinean and Malian subsidiaries. The latter was finally acquired by the Ivorian group Atlantic Financial Group of the businessman Dossongui Koné.

Supported by Afreximbank, Deloitte and the Astura law firm, the Vista group - which aims to be a pan-African group - believes that this is only the first step in its strategic expansion plan across the continent. In an interview with LTA in October 2018, Tiemtoré wanted to be very explicit about this: “the objective of our banking group, Vista Bank, is to be established in 15 countries by 2025. Our priority will be to first cover the whole of West Africa. We will then turn to the Central African market, this will allow us to have a footprint in the three major economic regions: WAMZ, UEOMOA and CEMAC which we believe to be strategic regions for growth and development on the Mainland”.