After buying the West African group Beneficial last year, the venerable British insurance institution Prudential could take a stake in the bancassurance company Orabank.

In complete 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 come 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 American branch to expand its business in emerging markets in all

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

The cards being 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, or 61.45%, to the General Pension Fund for Ivorian State Employees (see our revelations, Africa Intelligence of 20/11/19).

The operation, which was first invalidated by the Banking Commission of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) at its session on 18 September, was once again discussed 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), who was visiting Abidjan in early December, had previously discussed the issue with members of the banking commission, to whom he assured that his institution would remain a strategic shareholder

In addition to Prudential, Mahamadou Boukoungou, the founder of the Ebomaf group, also tried to acquire a stake in Orabank, but was refused by shareholders (Africa Intelligence, 27/11/20).