Kakuzi’s annual report for 2016 shows that Mr Kimani raised his stake to 28.88 per cent in the 12 months to December.
The additional stake of 219,769 shares is worth nearly Sh70 million at Kakuzi’s prevailing market price of Sh316 per share.
Mr Kimani is yet to get a seat on the company’s board in spite of his large stake, which places him as the second-largest shareholder.
Billionaire investor John Kibunga Kimani has moved closer to hitting his 29.9 per cent target ownership in agriculture firm Kakuzi #ticker:KUKZ, after buying an additional 1.12 per cent stake in the firm.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange #ticker:NSE -listed Kakuzi’s annual report for 2016 shows that Mr Kimani raised his stake to 28.88 per cent in the 12 months to December 31, 2016, having held 27.76 per cent at the end of 2015.
The additional stake of 219,769 shares is worth nearly Sh70 million at Kakuzi’s prevailing market price of Sh316 per share.
Mr Kimani announced in early 2015 his intention to eventually accumulate a 29.9 per cent interest in the company, on whose estates he was born and raised up as a squatter.
“Last year I was buying smaller lots because the price per share had gone up, but I am still on course to reach the target,” he told the Business Daily.
Mr Kimani is yet to get a seat on the company’s board in spite of his large stake, which places him as the second-largest shareholder of the agricultural firm after UK-based multinational Camellia Plc — which is the controlling shareholder with a 50.7 per cent stake.
Kakuzi’s articles of association give the company’s directors power to appoint new board members, with a maximum of eight and a minimum of two at any time. “I can only be a director if I am invited by Camellia,” said Mr Kimani.
Kakuzi has eight directors — mostly nominees of UK-based Camellia Plc — the latest appointee being Andrew Njoroge who joined last August.
Mr Kimani has steadily accumulated his Kakuzi shareholding to the current level from two per cent in 2005, buying an average of 2.5 per cent equity per year for most of the period. His announcement in early 2015 that he would seek to raise his stake further contributed to a rally in the company’s share price.
