Mbaru further cuts shareholding in TransCentury

Investment banker Jimnah Mbaru has further loosened his grip on TransCentury after selling additional shares in the Nairobi bourse listed firm. Photo/FILE  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By BD Reporter

In Summary

• Mr Mbaru sold 1.06 million TransCentury shares in the two months to November after disposing of 3.6 million shares worth Sh107.6 million in the six months to September.
• Mr Mbaru still holds shares worth Sh353 million.

Investment banker Jimnah Mbaru has further loosened his grip on TransCentury after selling additional shares in the Nairobi bourse listed firm.

Regulatory filings with the Capital Markets Authority show that Mr Mbaru sold 1.06 million TransCentury shares in the two months to November after disposing of 3.6 million shares worth Sh107.6 million  in the six months to September.

This is the second time Mr Mbaru — the owner of Dyer & Blair Investment Bank — has traded in his TransCentury shares since the firm’s listing at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) in July 2011, joining other founders in cutting their stakes.

The 1.06 million shares are worth Sh31 million based on the firm’s current share price of Sh29.75, down from Sh34.75 six months ago and its listing price of Sh50.

Mr Mbaru still holds shares worth Sh353 million.

“I sold the shares to reduce an overdraft (short term bank loan) I had,” Mr Mbaru said in November when data on his fist share sale were made public.

READ: Mbaru sells shares in TransCentury valued at Sh108m

The share sale has reduced his stake in the investment firm to 4.37 per cent in November from 4.76 per cent in September and 6.24 per cent when TransCentury listed on the NSE via an introduction.

This has seen him drop to the seventh largest shareholder in TransCentury, from fourth position, in a firm whose holding is dominated by wealthy individuals who were close to former President Kibaki like Michael Waweru (former Kenya Revenue Authority chief), Eddy Njoroge (former CEO of KenGen) and businessman Zephaniah Mbugua.

 

READ: TransCentury share sale boosts former KRA boss

This marks Mr Mbaru’s fourth prominent share dealing over the past year, after the businessman received nearly half a billion shillings from his stake in Britam in late 2012 after selling 20 million shares then worth Sh116 million and used the remaining 60.7 million shares as security for a bank loan.

Last year, he sold half a million shares in Uchumi which were worth Sh10 million.

Top shareholders of TransCentury including the family of the late James Gachui, Mr Mbugua and Mr Njoroge reduced their shares in the firm last year.

They have sold more than 6.4 million shares. The Gachui family sold 1.1 million shares, currently worth Sh32.7 million, but it remains the largest investor in TransCentury with shares worth Sh632.2 million.

Mr Njoroge sold three million shares worth Sh89.25 million, while Peter Kanyago sold 957,000 shares (Sh28.4 million) and Joseph Magari traded one million shares (Sh30.1 million).