Jimnah Mbaru Makes Ksh318 Million in Latest Deal

Jimnah Mbaru raked in Ksh318 million in a recent deal as he sold 64.8 million shares of his holdings in Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE)-listed financial services group Britam, disclosures have revealed.

Mbaru is the billionaire banker behind Dyer & Blair, a leading investment bank. He is also one of Nairobi Securities Exchange’s (NSE) biggest players.

Mbaru notably previously sold 50 million shares in Britam to Zurich-headquartered reinsurer Swiss Re in 2019. He subsequently purchased the same number of shares on the open market, re-establishing his shareholding in the company at 198.4 million by the end of 2019.

With the latest move to offload 64.8 million shares, his stake in Britam has fallen to to 130 million shares, or 5.1 percent of the company, by December 31, 2022. He remains the largest individual shareholder at Britam, ahead of fellow Rwathia billionaires Benson Wairegi, Peter Munga, and James Mwangi.

Wairegi holds a 4.02 percent stake in the firm, while Munga and Mwangi each own a 2.97-percent stake.

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Britam offers a range of services including asset management, life assurance, retirement planning, general insurance, health insurance, banking and property insurance and has a presence in seven markets – Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique.

Mbaru is one of Kenya’s richest men mostly thanks to his majority shareholding in Dyer & Blair. In 1973, the bank was bought out by Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary as KCB looked to offer brokerage services. Mbaru led local investors who bought KCB’s entire shareholding in the bank in 1983, steering it to fully fledged investment bank status in 2004.

The bank has been the lead adviser for many of the biggest transactions in the region, including Safaricom’s USD 840 million IPO in 2008,  the acquisition of a 24.99% stake in Equity Bank Group for USD 179 million by private equity firm Investment Partners, the first IPO on the Rwanda Stock Exchange with Bralirwa and the NIC Insurance Uganda IPO which was the first listing of an insurance company at the Uganda Stock Exchange.

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