As of April 2020, the Group had assets of US$971 million. At that time, the group served in excess of 850,000 customers in five Southern African countries and employed over 1,600 saff.
History
FMBCapital Holdings was founded in Malawi in 1995 as First Merchant Bank by the Anadkat family and Prime Bank of Kenya. It became Malawi's first private bank and was granted the third ever banking licence in Malawi. First Capital had a successful start and began to show profits after only two years of trading. In the year 2000, First Capital wholly acquired the Leasing and Finance Company Malawi Limited, which has since been dissolved and merged into First Capital Bank Malawi. In 2008, First Capital led a consortium that was granted a banking licence in Botswana, leading to the establishment of First Capital Bank Botswana Limited. The bank expanded its regional footprint in 2013, with the acquisition of the ICB Banking Group's businesses in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. First Capital listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange in 2009. In 2017, First Capital acquired 100 percent ownership in Opportunity Bank of Malawi. That same year, First Capital acquired a controlling stake in Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe. In December 2017, First Capital de-listed its shares from the Malawi Stock Exchange. The value of First Capital stock shares were acquired by the newly-created holding company, FMBCapital Holdings Plc, whose shares are now listed in the MSE.
Ownership
The shares of stock of FMBCapital holdings Plc are traded under the symbol FMBCH. As of 31 December 2018, the countries of origin of the shareholders is as illustrated in the table below.
Rank
Country
Number of Investors
Percentage of Total
Percentage Ownership
1
Angola
5
0.29
0.01
2
Botswana
1
0.06
0.00
3
Cayman Islands
1
0.06
0.00
4
Isle of Man
1
0.06
3.59
5
Kenya
3
0.17
21.36
6
Malawi
1,656
95.39
27.10
7
Mauritius
1
0.06
31.17
8
Portugal
8
0.46
0.09
9
South Africa
4
0.23
0.00
10
United Kingdom
8
0.46
16.60
11
United States
6
0.35
0.03
12
Undisclosed
40
2.30
0.04
13
Zimbabwe
2
0.12
0.00
Governance
The group is governed by a seven-person board of directors, comprising a non-executive chairman, four non-executive directors, and two executive directors. As of April 2020, the group chairman is Terence Davidson and the Group Managing Director is Dheeraj Dikshit.
