Individual investors, including billionaires, are some of the heavy beneficiaries from Safaricom as they have continued to accumulate the company’s shares over the years, buying stake from the small local traders and hodl.
Representing a 68.6pc drop from 4.8 billion shares (11.9pc) they acquired on June 9, 2008, domestic investors, now hold 1.5 billion units of the telco’s stock equivalent to a 3.8pc stake.
Foreign investors like asset managers like BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Fidelity have been buying more and more into the telco, combined, their stake rose to 10.9pc from 5pc over the same period.
This has left only a total of nine local investors who hold 106 million shares valued at Sh3.1 billion.
Billionaire investor John Kibunga Kimani, for instance, now holds 16.2 million shares worth Sh486 million according to the August records. He started buying the telco’s shares at the IPO when retail investors were required to apply for a minimum of 2,000 shares. The billionaire also owns a significant stake in Kakuzi PLC and Nation Media Group.
He recently made headlines after pocketing $800,000 for selling off more than 3 million shares of a listed oil marketing company, Total Kenya. The private man also has an additional stake in brewery giant East African Breweries Limited
Mr Moses Thara is another high-net-worth investor in Safaricom with 10.1 million shares worth Sh303.2 million.
The telco is the region’s most profitable firm and also ranks high in terms of margins.
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