Tycoon sells Sh80m Total Kenya shares shares

Billionaire investor John Kibunga Kimani has sold three million Total Kenya #ticker:TOTL shares worth Sh80 million, exiting the list of the oil marketer’s top shareholders.

Mr Kimani had held the shares for years and ranked as the second-largest investor after French conglomerate Total SA which is the controlling shareholder with a 93.96 percent equity.

Regulatory filings show that Mr Kimani started selling the oil marketer’s shares in 2017 and completed the exit by December last year. The share sales are rare for the investor who typically buys and holds stocks for the long-term.

“I sold my Total shares. This was to raise funds to buy more shares in Kakuzi,” said Mr Kimani who has been accumulating shares in the agricultural firm for more than a decade.

His stake in Kakuzi #ticker:KUKZ currently stands at about 31 per cent. His purchase of more of the agricultural company’s shares comes as the NSE-listed firm continues to grow and diversify its business.

Kakuzi recently ventured into production of blueberries, adding to its tea, avocados, macadamia, trees and livestock operations.

Blueberries are sold fresh and can also be processed to make a wide variety of other products such as juice, jam and wine.

Besides blueberries, Kakuzi is also scaling up its avocado production by a large margin.

Kakuzi plans to dedicate up to 1,200 hectares to the production of avocado –its largest revenue earner and most profitable crop— in the medium term.

The company is also investing in infrastructure to support the export of its avocado.

“In order to best manage the packing and export of this fruit, the packhouse (warehouse) will be upgraded during 2019. This represents another substantial investment for the company,” Kakuzi said in its latest annual report.