The Telenor Group has increased its shareholding in Tameer Microfinance Bank to 100 per cent, which makes the country’s first and largest microfinance bank a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Norway-based telecommunications giant.
Tameer’s founder Nadeem Hussain told a local news outfit on Thursday that he and other minority shareholders, who collectively held 49 per cent stakes in the bank, have sold their shares to the Telenor Group.
Hussain, who is also the bank’s CEO, held 29.4 per cent stake in Tameer through his company called EMC whereas other shareholders namely International Finance Corporation, Centurion, Nizar Noor Muhammed and Noor Muhammad Mewawalla held 4.9%, 7.3%, 3.6% and 3.6%, respectively. Telenor Pakistan controlled the rest of 51% shareholding in Tameer.
He refused to state the size of the transaction. Net assets of Tameer amounted to Rs 3.2 billion at the end of June 2015, according to its latest financial accounts. The bank earned Rs 382.8 million in the first six months of 2015, which is 23.2% higher than the net profit for Jan-Jun 2014.
Hussain added that with the Telenor Group controlling 100% shareholding in Tameer, Pakistan’s first and largest branchless banking solution, Easypaisa, will immediately become part of the microfinance bank.
