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Senegalese entrepreneur Yérim Sow is preparing to list Bridge Bank Group Côte d’Ivoire on the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) next year, in a move aimed at funding a broader West African push for the mid-sized lender, according to people familiar with the plans. The listing of the Teyliom Group-controlled bank would be one of the most closely watched initial public offerings on the regional exchange in recent years.
Bridge Bank Group Côte d’Ivoire (BBG CI) started operations in 2006 as a commercial bank focused on small and medium-sized enterprises and later broadened its client base to larger local corporates, public-sector entities, financial institutions and affluent retail customers. The Abidjan-based bank operates a network of about 14 branches and serves roughly 10,500 clients, including around 800 corporate and large SME customers.
The lender is majority-owned by Bridge Group West Africa (BGWA), a financial holding company controlled by Sow’s Teyliom Group. BGWA holds about 77% of BBG CI, while Côte d’Ivoire’s Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance Sociale (CNPS), the state social security fund, owns around 20%, with the remainder held by smaller investors and staff.
The planned IPO would give Bridge Bank access to long-term equity capital to support balance-sheet growth, meet regulatory capital requirements and finance expansion in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), people familiar with the discussions said. Reports indicate Sow wants to float the banking subsidiary on the BRVM in Abidjan in 2026 to speed up expansion in the sub-region.
Bridge Bank has already started to move beyond its home market. The group launched Bridge Bank Senegal in December 2021 as its first banking foothold outside Côte d’Ivoire, describing the subsidiary as the spearhead of a wider West African strategy. Teyliom’s finance arm also controls Bridge Securities, a licensed brokerage, Bridge Asset Management, an asset manager, and Bridge MicroFinance, all based in Côte d’Ivoire, creating a small financial-services cluster built around the bank.
Recent growth figures help explain why Sow is willing to open the capital to public investors. According to a 2025 industry ranking of Ivorian banks, Bridge Bank’s net profit rose from about 10.8 billion CFA francs in 2020 to nearly 19.8 billion CFA francs in 2023, implying a compound annual growth rate of roughly 22%, and placing it among the country’s more dynamic mid-tier lenders. The same survey cited the bank’s SME focus and noted that it won a 2024 award as “best SME bank” at a regional forum.
Development financiers have also been active on the balance sheet. In 2023, Dutch impact investors Oikocredit and Triodos Investment Management provided a €10 million Tier II subordinated facility to Bridge Bank, earmarked to expand SME lending and help execute a 2022–2026 plan to build a regional bank leveraging digital channels. The International Finance Corporation has backed the lender through trade finance guarantees under its Global Trade Finance Program and describes BBG CI as an SME-oriented bank with a growing footprint.
By the mid-2020s, Bridge Bank ranked around 10th by assets in Côte d’Ivoire and 13th among banking groups in the WAEMU, with total assets of roughly 800 billion CFA francs and equity of about 75 billion CFA francs, according to statements from the bank and its partners. Positioning itself as a regional SME bank, rather than a universal giant, has allowed it to compete on service and pricing in niches where larger rivals have been slower to move.
For Sow, the prospective IPO is the latest step in a diversification strategy that began almost two decades ago. The Teyliom Group, which he founded in the early 2000s, has interests spanning telecoms, real estate, hospitality, logistics and finance across at least 16 countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Bridge Bank Group Côte d’Ivoire was launched in Abidjan in 2006 as part of that diversification, alongside stakes in other financial institutions such as Senegal’s BNDE.
A listing would also mark a new stage in the relationship between Teyliom and earlier financial partners. Private equity firm AfricInvest exited BGWA in 2022, selling its minority stake back to Teyliom Finance after helping the group evolve from a single Ivorian bank into a platform with operations in Senegal and several non-bank financial businesses. That simplification of the shareholder structure leaves Sow with more latitude to decide how much of Bridge Bank to float and how much control to retain.
The BRVM, headquartered in Abidjan and shared by eight WAEMU states, has been trying to attract more financial institutions to list, both to deepen the market and to help banks diversify their funding. Around 45 companies are currently listed on the exchange, including several Ivorian lenders that have used IPOs or secondary offerings to meet Basel-style capital rules.
Bridge Bank’s sale of shares would give local institutional investors – including pension funds such as CNPS – another bank stock to trade, while offering retail savers exposure to a lender whose brand remains primarily domestic. For regulators, a successful float would send a signal that mid-tier banks can tap the market rather than relying only on retained earnings, bilateral lines or quasi-sovereign support.
Key decisions still to be taken include the size of the free float, the valuation range and whether new shares will be issued alongside a sale of existing holdings by current investors, according to people following the process. The offer would need approval from the BRVM and from regional market watchdog CREPMF before marketing can begin.
Bridge Bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the timing or structure of a potential listing. Teyliom also declined to comment.
If the deal goes ahead in 2026, it would crystallize market value for one of Sow’s most important financial assets and provide a currency for future acquisitions, whether in Senegal – where the group is still building branches – or in other WAEMU markets. For Abidjan’s stock exchange, it would add another banking name to a market where lenders already account for a large share of trading, but where mid-sized, fast-growing issuers remain scarce.
