Absa Settles for Less: First Assurance Investments to Pay KSh 3B for Insurance StakesAbsa Settles for Less: First Assurance Investments to Pay KSh 3B for Insurance Stakes
Key Highlights
- Absa Group will receive KSh 3B ($23.09M) for its 63.32% stakes in First Assurance and Absa Life Assurance Kenya, below the KSh 3.8B that had been expected for the sale.
- The buyer is First Assurance Investments Ltd, and the deal still needs approval from the Insurance Regulatory Authority before it can complete.
- The sale continues Absa's exit from insurance outside South Africa, where it has already sold units in Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique.
Absa Group will receive KSh 3B ($23.09M) from First Assurance Investments Ltd for its 63.32% stakes in First Assurance and Absa Life Assurance Kenya, a price KSh 800M below the KSh 3.8B that had been expected.
The figure is the first price attached to a sale that Absa Group announced in August without disclosing financial terms. It matters to policyholders and investors because the deal still needs approval from the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) before ownership changes.
Price below expectations
The KSh 3B figure is KSh 800M lower than the KSh 3.8B expected for the stakes. Mwenendo has not seen a statement from Absa or the IRA explaining the gap, so the reasons for the lower price remain unconfirmed.
The two businesses are First Assurance, a general insurer, and Absa Life Assurance Kenya, a life insurer. Both are covered by the one transaction, and the buyer, First Assurance Investments Ltd, is already a shareholder in both companies.
A wider exit from insurance
The sale follows Absa's move to pull out of insurance businesses outside South Africa. It has already sold its insurance units in Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique to Hollard. In Kenya, Absa's bancassurance business, which sells insurance through the bank, grew its 2025 net profit by 35%, while Absa Life's profit fell 26%.
First Assurance traces its roots to Prudential Assurance in East Africa, which began operating in 1930 and became a wholly Kenyan company in 1991. Barclays Africa Group bought 63.3% of First Assurance in 2015 for KSh 2.2B ($16.93M), before the group was renamed Absa in 2018. The new price is therefore KSh 800M above what Barclays Africa paid.
Policyholders wait for IRA approval
No completion date has been given. Until the IRA approves, the two insurers continue to operate under Absa's majority ownership. Customers should not see changes to existing policies while the review is under way.
Mwenendo earlier reported on how the Absa Africa Financial Markets Index reached a decade high, a reminder that the group's African strategy is being reshaped market by market. Absa's half-year earnings, covered when headline earnings rose 8% to R12.8B, show the bank side of the business growing as insurance is pared back.
In Summary
- Who is selling and who is buying?
- Absa Group is selling; First Assurance Investments Ltd is buying.
- What is being sold?
- Absa's 63.32% stakes in First Assurance and Absa Life Assurance Kenya.
- When was the deal announced?
- In August 2026; the KSh 3B price emerged on 19 October 2026.
- Where do the insurers operate?
- Kenya.
- Why is Absa selling?
- It is exiting insurance businesses outside South Africa, having sold units in Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique.
- How does the deal complete?
- It needs approval from the Insurance Regulatory Authority; no completion date has been given.