Court battle thrusts Central Bank of Kenya and its former Governor Patrick Njoroge into the eye of a storm.
On November 16, 2016, tension broke out during negotiations between Fidelity Bank and Mauritian SBM Bank, which was seeking to take over the Kenyan lender.
Previous talks had placed Fidelity Bank’s value at Ksh1.3 billion, which would have seen the lender’s owners pocket a tidy sum in initial payments pending SBM’s takeover.
The initial talks had seen SBM propose further payments after recovery of bad loans, but on November 16, SBM had changed its tune and claimed that Fidelity Bank was worth Ksh1 billion.
The Mauritians had proposed injecting Ksh700 million to cater for bad loans, and Ksh300 million into legal costs associated with recovery of defaulted loans.