Commercial Bank of Africa Limited agreed to acquire NIC Group PLC (NASE : NIC) in a reverse merger transaction on January 31, 2019. Under the terms of the transaction, NIC Group PLC will issue shares to the 34 shareholders of Commercial Bank of Africa Limited resulting in the shareholders of Commercial Bank of Africa Limited owning in aggregate 53% stake in the merged entity with the existing shareholders of NIC Group PLC owning 47%. The combined entity will be known as NIC Group. The new merged Group will be called NCBA Group PLC and the Kenya operating bank will be known as NCBA Bank Kenya PLC. The transaction is subject to the parties obtaining applicable shareholder and regulatory approvals, and the parties entering into and completing various transactional agreements to complete the merger. The respective Boards of Directors of Commercial Bank of Africa Limited and NIC Group PLC have agreed to the merger and proposed to recommend the merger to their shareholders. Shareholder approval for the transaction is expected to be obtained in the first quarter of 2019 while regulatory approval is expected in the second quarter of 2019. As on March 15, 2019, the shareholders of Commercial Bank of Africa Limited accepted a share swap with NIC Group, paving way for its merger. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2019. The Annual General Meeting of the shareholders of Commercial Bank of Africa Limited held on April 16, 2019 approved the merger. On April 17, 2019, NIC Group's shareholders approved the merger. The deal is now subject to approval from regulators and NIC expects the process to be concluded in the third quarter of 2019. As on May 13, 2019, The Competition Authority of Kenya approved the transaction on condition that none of the employees of the merged entity are declared redundant within 12 months of closing the transaction in Kenya. On August 27, 2019, the transaction was approved by the Central Bank of Kenya. On September 20, 2019, National Treasury have granted approval for the transaction. As of September 27, 2019, the closing of the transaction shall take effect on September 30, 2019. Faida Investment Bank acted as financial advisor for NIC Group PLC. NIC Capital and CBA Capital acted as financial advisors in the transaction. Coulson Harney LLP acted as legal advisor for Commercial Bank of Africa Limited while James Kamau of Iseme, Kamau & Maema Advocates acted as legal advisor for NIC Group PLC. DLA Piper South Africa Services (Pty) Ltd acted as a legal advisor to NIC Group PLC. Commercial Bank of Africa Limited completed the reverse merger with NIC Group PLC (NASE:NIC) on September 27, 2019.