The Competition Authority of Kenya gave its approval for Cable Experts Limited to acquire East African Cables, with Director-General David Kemei signing the authorisation under Section 46(6)(a)(ii) of the Competition Act.
The Kenya Gazette notice carrying the approval is dated August 21, 2026 and was published on October 2, alongside the clearance of the ICEA Lion takeover on the same day.
East African Cables, listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange as CABL, was founded in 1966 and supplies power cables and conductors throughout East and Central Africa. The company and its parent TransCentury have recorded negative net worth since 2017, leading to a prolonged insolvency battle.
On May 23, 2025 the Court of Appeal rejected East African Cables’ attempt to block Equity Bank from selling four properties pledged for a KSh2.2 billion debt, after which Equity Bank placed TransCentury under receivership and East African Cables under administration when earlier court orders expired.
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Muniu Thoithi and George Weru were first appointed as joint receivers and administrators on June 16, 2023 and resumed their duties on June 19, 2025 following the lapse of a 90-day extension; the Capital Markets Authority and the Nairobi Securities Exchange suspended trading in the shares in June 2025.
Cable Experts signed a share purchase agreement on May 19, 2026 with TransCentury’s receivers, covering 173,071,149 shares that represent a 68.37 per cent stake held through Cable Holdings (Kenya) Limited. The transaction will retire the company’s secured bank debt and is described as a rescue acquisition. Cable Experts has no prior public profile, and the identity of its investors has not been disclosed, but the firm operates factories in Kenya, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo and sells in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Ethiopia.
The competition clearance does not finalise the deal, as Cable Experts has applied to the Capital Markets Authority for an exemption from the mandatory offer required for the remaining 31.63 per cent of minority shareholders. If the exemption is denied, the buyer would need to make an offer to those shareholders, increasing the transaction cost. Shares of East African Cables and TransCentury remain suspended until all approvals are secured, and Cable Experts has indicated it will pursue a route for trading to resume after completion.
