Lesaka Technologies and Bank Zero have agreed to extend the long-stop date for Lesaka’s acquisition of the digital bank from 6 August 2026 to 31 January 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The companies entered into a Transaction Implementation Agreement in June 2025 regarding Lesaka’s R1.1 billion deal to acquire the digital bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The long-stop date is the date by which all outstanding conditions of the acquisition deal must be satisfied or waived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Transaction Implementation Agreement will lapse if the outstanding conditions precedent are not fulfilled or, if permitted, waived by 6 August 2026,” Lesaka said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“On 11 June 2026, Lesaka SA and the Sellers’ representative agreed to extend this date from 6 August 2026 to 31 January 2027, while the remaining outstanding regulatory consents are being produced.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lesaka received unconditional approval to acquire Bank Zero from the Competition Tribunal in 2025, after it made its R1.1 billion offer earlier in that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once the transaction is finalised, Lesaka will directly control Bank Zero’s parent company, Zero Research, and integrate the bank’s services into its offerings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deal intends to position Lesaka Technologies’ offering to challenge major banks in South Africa later in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lesaka said Bank Zero was the missing piece in its strategy to offer services to customers that banks cannot due to legacy systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lesaka executive chair Ali Mazanderani said that as digital-first banks like Bank Zero continued to grow, they would segment the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lesaka said it aimed to add full banking capabilities to its fintech offering through its acquisition of Bank Zero. It also planned to consolidate its digital infrastructure into a single, scalable platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Launched in 2021, Bank Zero offers low-cost digital banking services and does not have any brick-and-mortar bank branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Customers access its services exclusively through its mobile app, which is available on Android and iOS. The bank said its platform was built from the ground up, with efficiency being a key priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Lesaka, Bank Zero would benefit from its nationwide merchant and agent footprint, which would enable it to scale beyond its current app-based model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mazanderani said traditional “incumbent” banks in South Africa were still constrained by legacy systems, which slow them down, while digital-only banks were free of these restraints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The cost base and structure of the new digital banks give them an inherent advantage in pricing and in developing new products quickly,” Lesaka said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Those efficiencies will, over time, erode the market share of big banks that carry decades of branch networks and legacy IT systems.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The long-stop date for Lesaka’s acquisition of Bank Zero has been extended to early 2027. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":652692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10106],"tags":[98674,48295,84553,74324,105184],"class_list":["post-654551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-ali-mazanderani","tag-bank-zero","tag-lesaka-technologies","tag-low-cost-banking","tag-zero-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654551"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654565,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654551\/revisions\/654565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}