Kenyan banking mogul Jimnah Mbaru has seen the market value of his investment in Britam Holdings, a Kenya-based diversified financial services group, fall by $1.1 million since the start of the year, as shares in the group begin the new year with losses.
Britam Holdings is a leading financial services provider with operations throughout Southern and East Africa. Insurance, asset management, banking and real estate are among its financial services.
The Kenya-based financial services holding has agreed to sell 253 million shares in Equity Group Holdings to the International Finance Corporation for $123.3 million.
Mbaru, a seasoned investment banker and the chairman of Dyer and Blair Investment Bank, owns a substantial 7.72-percent position in Britam Holdings, totaling 194,800,100 ordinary shares.
The million-dollar drop in the market value of his stake in Britam Holdings can be attributed to investor portfolio-rotation activities, as market participants shift funds into firms with strong upside potential ahead of the earnings season.
Shares in the financial services groups were trading at Ksh7.04 ($0.0619) a share as of press time on Feb. 21, giving the group a Ksh17.8-billion ($156.6 million) valuation.
During the past three months, Britam Holdings shares were the sixteenth most-traded stock on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, with a total of 4.19 million shares exchanged in 817 transactions worth Ksh30.4 million ($267,411).
Since the beginning of 2022, the firm’s shares have fallen from Ksh7.68 ($0.0675) at the start of business this year to Ksh7.04 ($0.0619) at the time of writing this report, representing an 8.3-percentage loss for shareholders.
The market value of Mbaru’s 7.72-percent stake has declined from Ksh1.5 billion ($13.2 million) to Ksh1.3 billion ($12.1 million) as a result of the price drop.
This amounts to a total loss of Ksh125 million ($1.1 million) for the multimillionaire investment banker since the year began.