Kenya's Equity gets final nod to sell 24.99 pct stake

NAIROBI, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Shareholders of Kenya's Equity Bank (EQTY.NR) approved plans to sell a 24.99 percent stake to a strategic equity partner, the bank said in a statement on Monday.

Following the decision at its annual shareholders' meeting on Friday to finalise the sale of the stake to private equity firm Helios EB Investors, the bank said it would list the 90.5 million new ordinary shares on the Nairobi Stock Exchange.

"Admission to listing of the new ordinary shares allotted to Helios at the Nairobi Stock Exchange takes place today," the bank said.

Helios paid just over 11 billion shillings ($176.1 million) for the stake.

Equity Bank made a pretax profit of 1.53 billion shillings in the nine months ended Sept. 30, almost double the 774 million shillings in the same period a year before.

The bank has 70 branches in Kenya. In October it acquired a 24.9 percent stake in mortgage lender Housing Finance HOUS.NR jointly with insurance firm British American Investments Company.

The Central Bank of Kenya and capitals markets regulator Capital Markets Authority had already approved the sale. (Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by David Holmes)