Kenyan banking tycoon Suresh Bhagwanji Shah has seen the market value of his stake in I&M Bank Group fall by millions of dollars since the start of the year, as shares in the Kenya-based financial services group fell by double digits amid heightened selling pressures on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
According to data compiled by Billioanires.Africa, the market value of Shah’s interest in I&M Business has dropped by Ksh750 million ($6.21 million) in the past 37 days, as shareholders lower stakes in the group in a systematic effort to protect wealth and shift capital into risk-free ventures.
I&M is the Kenya-based non-operating holding company for I&M Bank Limited, a leading financial services group with active operations in Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda, as well as a joint venture in Mauritius.
Shah, who is credited with turning I&M Group into one of East Africa’s leading banking groups, owns a beneficial 10.98-percent ownership in the top-performing financial services provider, which corresponds to 178,514,362 ordinary shares.
Since its founding by Shah in 1974, I&M Group has expanded its operations to other East African countries.
As of press time on Oct. 10, shares in the group were worth Ksh16.90 ($0.1399) per share, giving the top banking group a market cap of Ksh27.9 billion ($231 million), ranking it 11th on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
Since the beginning of the year, I&M shares on the local bourse have declined by nearly 20 percent from Ksh21.1 ($0.175) on January 1 to Ksh16.9 ($0.1399) on Oct. 10.
As a result of the recent price decline, the market value of Shah’s stake in the group has declined by Ksh750 million ($6.21 million), from Ksh3.77 billion ($31.18 million) at the start of the year to Ksh3.017 billion ($24.98 million) at the time of drafting this report.
