This is exclusive information from our colleagues at Jeune Afrique Business+ who announces that Simon Tiemtoré, CEO of Lilium Capital, has reached an agreement with the French banking group to take over the Burkinabe and Guinean subsidiaries.

On sale since May 2019, the French group's African subsidiaries have now found a buyer. Five months after the acquisition by the financial group of the Ivorian Dossongui Koné of BNP's stake in BICIM (International Bank for Commerce and Industry of Mali), those in Burkina and Guinea have just in turn fallen into the fold of the banking group of the American-Burkinabe, Simon Tiemtoré

“I have received the good news that Mr. Tiemtoré has signed the agreement to take over our subsidiaries in Burkina and Guinea. We all wish him much success,” a senior manager of the French banking group confirmed to Jeune Afrique Business+. The agreement provides for the sale of 51% of the capital of BICIAB and 55% of BICIGUI to Lilium Capital, a holding company that controls Vista Bank, present in Guinea and Sierra Leone and

However, the amount of the transaction remains confidential. After Coris Bank International from the iconic banker Idrissa Nassa, IB Bank from the Burkinabe King of Construction, Mahamadou Bonkoungou and Wendkuni Bank International from the telecom tycoon, Apollinaire Compaoré, Simon Tiemtoré becomes the fourth Burkinabe to embark on a regional banking adventure.

The arrival of Vista Bank is part of the policy of the President of Burkina Faso, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, to make Ouagadougou a regional financial center.

Before this first acquisition in West Africa, Simon Tiemtoré was in negotiations with the Togolese authorities to buy the Togolese Bank for Trade and Industry. However, it remains in the running through the sale of the public financial institution as well as the Togolese Union of Banks (UTB

The entry into the UEMOA zone reinforces Vista Bank's ambition to become a pan-African group and this acquisition now gives it the free field to break into this West African market dominated by Ecobank, the French group Société Générale or even the Burkinabe financial group Coris Bank.