JPMorgan Continues Expansion In Africa Even After Entry Refusal By Regulators

JPMorgan was recently denied entry in Kenya and Ghana but that has not stopped the financial institution from expanding and pushing it's team towards gaming and web video financing.

JPMorgan Chase and Co. is not looking back when it comes to its expansion plans. The company was denied entry into Kenya and Ghana by regulators. CEO Jamie Dimon of the company has offices in Nigeria and South Africa but he wants the presence of his company in more African countries to push growth.

Mr. Dimon is not demotivated by the refusal of entry in Kenya and Ghana according to Bloomberg. He also said, “We’ll hopefully start opening branches again in Africa” at an interview by Bloomberg TV on Monday this week. He said that he is not doing this because it is going to support the company’s earnings but because it forms the base for the next generation.

The banking services company has been refused entry since two years now. The CEO, on the other hand, does not consider this as a defeat, as he thinks this is how the banking company will learn and “build for the future and win”, according to him. He looks ambitious and optimist about the potential of the company to expand in Africa. He plans to minimize, stating, “We’re not doing retail. We’re not doing stuff like that. So I would say it’s rather low risk.”

Other financial institutions that have operations in Africa, in the hope of gaining from the economic growth of the country, are Barclays Plc., Citigroup, and BNP Paribas SA. The country’s forecast stated to grow by 3.8% in 2015 and 4.3% in 2016, which makes it the fastest expanding region, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report showed on October 6.

JPMorgan handled the Kenyan government’s Eurobond sales of last year, which worth $2 billion. It is also financing planes for Kenya Airways Ltd. and provides finances for government power plants and other large-scale projects in Ghana, Mr. Dimon informed. He said, “We are going to do a bunch of things and serve the clients who already want us to be there.”

In other news by Bloomberg, the financial services company’s film and TV finance group is the leader in Hollywood and is expanding in order to attain more deals involving cinemas, digital programming, and video games. Its Hollywood banking team hired Jeff Bazoian to be the managing director and the leader of the expansion on Tuesday.

The expansion in Hollywood will help in the growth of the demand for digital content. JPMorgan mentioned having 90% of market share making it the leader of corporate finance platform for films and the TV industry. 

JPMorgan Stock closed at $62.52 on October 20.