The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) has attracted strong interest from Kenyan investors and institutions, with local buyers scooping up the majority of shares offered, Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi announced on Wednesday during the official IPO results announcement.
The IPO offered 11.8 billion shares at Ksh 9 each, aiming to raise about Ksh 106.3 billion for the government. Mbadi said the IPO was oversubscribed, with total applications exceeding the shares on offer.
“We offered 11,812,644,350 shares at 9 shillings each. The total number of shares applied for stood at 12,486,78,724, translating to an overall subscription rate of 105.7 per cent,” he said.
Of the shares applied for, Kenyan retail investors and local institutions bought around 7.95 billion shares, about 67.32 per cent of the total offer. This strong domestic participation helped push the overall subscription above the full offer level.
Regional investors from Uganda, Rwanda, and other East African Community countries also participated, purchasing approximately 3.8 billion shares in total. Many of the Uganda and Rwanda purchases were made through their countries’ pension funds.
Despite earlier concerns that foreign investors might gain significant control, Mbadi said they will hold only a very small stake of about 0.02 per cent in KPC.
Under the final share allocation plan, local institutional investors will own about 41 %, retail investors about 2.56 %, KPC employees about 0.06 %, and licensed Kenyan oil marketing companies about 0.041 %, with foreign investors taking the remaining 0.02 %.
The government has stated it will only take the amounts it planned to raise and will not issue extra shares beyond the offer. Mbadi also stressed that the IPO is meant to broaden ownership, deepen Kenya’s capital markets, and allow ordinary Kenyans to own a piece of a key national asset.
Trading of the newly issued shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) is scheduled to start on March 9, 2026.
Kenyans are very optimistic and hardworking people. Our problem lies in the leadership indicating poor foundations in terms of values. We are a country, not a nation. Very unfortunate.