Wealthy Kenyan businessman Andrew Ndegwa loses $1.1 million in three weeks

Andrew Ndegwa, a wealthy Kenyan businessman and senior banking executive, has lost more than $1 million in the past three weeks from his stake in NCBA Group, as wary investors reduced their positions in the Nairobi-based financial services group.

NCBA Group is a Nairobi-based financial services conglomerate with a presence in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Cote d’Ivoire.

Ndegwa, a director on the board of the financial services conglomerate, holds a beneficial 4.3-percent stake valued at over $15 million.

The recent $1.1-million decline in the market value of his investment can be attributed to a single-digit percentage drop in the bank’s shares, as wary investors reduced their positions in the Nairobi-based institution.

As of press time on Feb. 25, the bank’s shares were trading at Ksh24.2 ($0.213), 3.39-percent lower than their starting price on the local exchange this morning.

At the current price, the bank’s market capitalization is valued at Ksh39.9 billion ($351.1 million), making it one of the most capitalized stock on Nairobi Exchange.

Over the past three months, NCBA Group has been the eleventh most-traded stock on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, with a total volume of 8.59 million shares exchanged in 1,146 transactions valued at Ksh209 million ($1.84 million).

The market price of NCBA shares on the local bourse has fallen from Ksh26 ($0.229) to Ksh24.2 ($0.2129) at the time of writing this article, resulting in a 6.9-percent loss for shareholders over the past three weeks.

As a result of the price decline, the market value of Ndegwa’s 4.3-percent interest in the group has dropped from Ksh1.84 billion ($16.2 million) on Feb. 4 to Ksh1.71 billion ($15.1 million) at the time of writing this article.

This amounts to a total loss of Ksh127.6 million ($1.1 million) for the multimillionaire banker.