Changes at the Dfcu Limited continue to happen; the latest is Arise B.V.’s appointment of Friedrich Christian Pelser to the Board, after the resignation of Deepak Malik in September.
Pelser is a Chartered Accountant with 16 years’ work experience is currently working as a Senior Investment Manager, with Arise B.V. He has extensive experience in investment banking and private equity which he brings to the Board. His appointment demonstrates the commitment of Arise BV in continued influence on the board.
Malik’s resignation as a non-executive director meant that the Dfcu board was left with five other non-executive directors led by Elly Karuhanga as Chairman. Others directors who Pelser now joins are; Albert Jonkergouw, Winifred Tarinyeba- Kiryabwire, Frederick Kironde Lule and Michael Alan Turner.
The board members are expected to work with Mathias Katamba who is heading to the bank as Managing Director. Currently he is the MD of Housing Finance Bank, though sources say he handed in his resignation letter.
Arise B.V. has majority stake of over 50 per cent in Dfcu Limited, the holding company of Dfcu Bank after lending US $50 million in February 2017. The Group also has 12 per cent stake in Equity Group Holdings, the parent company of Kenya’s Equity Bank and like in Dfcu, it is the largest single shareholder. But also the groups have a stake as second majority shareholders in NMBZ Holdings Limited that runs National Merchant Bank of Zimbabwe.
DFCU Shareholding percentages
Arise BV 58.71 per cent
CDC Group of the United Kingdom 9.97 per cent
National Social Security Fund (Uganda) 7.69 per cent
Kimberlite Frontier Africa Naster Fund 6.15 per cent
2 undisclosed Institutional Investors 3.22 per cent
SSB-Conrad N. Hilton Foundation 0.98 per cent
Vanderbilt University 0.87 per cent
Blakeney Management 0.63 per cent
Retail investors 11.19 per cent
BoU staff retirement benefit scheme is 0.59 per cent