James Mwangi, a leading Kenyan multimillionaire businessman and CEO of Equity Group Holdings, East Africa’s largest financial services group, has seen the market value of his stake in the leading lender fall by more than $5.4 million since the beginning of the year.
Mwangi, who has been instrumental in the development of Kenya’s financial services industry, owns a sizable 3.38-percent stake in Equity Group, a leading group that operates as the largest lender in East and Central Africa.
Shares in the East and Central Africa-focused financial services group have fallen by more than 9 percent since the beginning of the year, as investors continue to sell down stakes in the Nairobi-based lender despite reporting a record-high profit of $350.2 billion at the end of 2021.
According to data obtained from the Nairobi Securities Exchange, the lender’s shares have dropped 9.38 percent from Ksh52.75 ($0.456) at the start of the year to Ksh47.8 ($0.413) at the time of writing.
As a result of the bank’s share price decline, the market value of Mwangi’s stake has dropped from Ksh6.74 billion ($58.27 million) on Jan. 1 to Ksh6.11 billion ($52.81 million) as of press time this week.
This equates to a total loss of Ksh632.66 million ($5.47 million) for the multimillionaire businessman as investors and other market participants digest the group’s 2021 financial report.
Equity Group’s profit after tax at the end of 2021 increased by 99 percent from Ksh20.1 billion ($175.5 million) in 2020 to Ksh40.1 billion ($350.2 million), owing to the consistent growth in interest and non-interest income, as well as well-executed cost and treasury management strategies throughout the year, according to its recently published financial statement.
The bank’s assets increased as a result of its performance, as its balance sheet expanded by 29 percent, from Ksh1.015 trillion ($8.9 billion) to Ksh1.305 trillion ($11.44 billion), owing to a 29-percent increase in customer deposits.
