Kenyan businessman John Kimani gains over $1.6 million from stake in Kakuzi

John Kimani, one of Kenya’s richest businessmen and prominent investors on the local exchange, has recorded a Ksh189.92-million ($1.66 million) boost in his net worth from his stake in the Kenya-based agro-allied company, Kakuzi Plc.

Kakuzi is a leading agro-allied company listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange. The firm grows, processes and markets avocados, blueberries, macadamia, tea, cattle and commercial forestry.

Kenyan media magnate John Kimani, who serves on Kakuzi’s board of directors, owns a significant 32.3-percent interest in the company, totaling 6,330,699 shares.

His recent wealth gains can be attributed to a prolonged growth in the price of the Nairobi-based company’s ordinary shares, as investors maintain their interests in the agro-allied business.

As of press time, March 4, Kakuzi shares were trading at Ksh415 ($3.64) on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, unchanged from their opening price on the bourse this morning, as buying and selling forces were evenly balanced on the trading floor.

The company’s stock price has risen from Ksh385 ($3.38) per share at the start of 2022 to Ksh415 ($3.64) per share at the time of writing, representing a 7.8-percent return for owners in less than two months.

The market value of Kimani’s shareholding has climbed from Ksh2.44 billion ($21.38 million) on Jan. 1 to N2.63 billion ($23.04) on March 4.

This amounts to a paper profit of Ksh189.92 million ($1.66 million) for the multimillionaire businessman, who also owns shares in East Africa’s largest media conglomerate, Nation Media Group, and East African Breweries Limited.

The persistent rise in Kakuzi shares defies analysts’ forecasts, as experts anticipate that the agro-allied company’s warnings about its profit statistics will reduce investor confidence, and, as a result, lead to a sell-off of its shares on the Nairobi bourse.

Earlier this year, the agro-allied company told investors that it anticipates its profit to be at least 25 percent lower at the end of its 2021 fiscal quarter than it was in 2020.

The company’s profits guidance was prompted by trade information, market expectations, and preliminary unaudited full-year financial statements, among other data sources currently available to the board.

Nicholas Ng’ang’a, chairman of Kakuzi, said the firm’s performance was impacted by an 18-percent decline in the production of Hass Avocado, its main operation, coupled with a fall in the price of the commodity on the global market due to oversupply in Peru and Columbia.

As a result, “net earnings for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2021 may be at least 25-percent lower than those reported for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2020.”