After quiet decades in the insurance industry, business magnate suddenly finds himself in midst of Mauritius bank storm. PHOTO | BD GRAPHIC
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For the past three weeks, Wairegi has been swimming in a different pool after Mauritius’ Bramer Banking Corporation was taken over by the government for running a Ponzi scheme.
Of the few Murang’a billionaires, Kigumo-born Benson Wairegi is one of the most reserved — and the least abrasive.
While the others love to throw their weight around — given a chance — Ben, as his close friends call him, would rather sit quietly and listen.
At a recent meeting called for Murang’a professionals and investors at the Parklands Sports Club, where he was a former chairman, Wairegi sat at the back. He never took the microphone and when the event was done, minutes before midnight, he vanished into the darkness.
At the Muthaiga Golf Club, where he is a member, Wairegi enjoys a regular play of golf — mostly over the weekends. It is a routine he has had for many years.
Running the multi-billion shilling Britam, which is valued at over Sh40.7 billion, saps all his energy. At least twice a week, when he needs to re-energise, you can catch him in the pool or gym in Parklands.
But for the past three weeks now, Wairegi has been swimming in a different pool after Mauritius’ Bramer Banking Corporation and its sister firm British-American Investments (Mauritius) ran into trouble with the government for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme.
Wairegi and Britam shareholder Dawood Rawat were directors of the Mauritius bank.
Wairegi first met Mr Rawat in December 1982, some two years after he joined the British American Insurance Company (Kenya) as a finance manager. Mr Rawat had come to attend the company’s first regional conference. In a group picture taken after the conference, Wairegi stood at the far right in the company of underwriter Anthony Wangai, his hands clasped behind his back.
Mr Rawat, by then general manager Mauritius and vice president for the East African region, was flanked by David J. Thurlow, the President of Britam in Bahamas.
At only 29 then, Wairegi had embedded himself at the centre of a company that dominated the insurance market. It was a position he had taken after he was poached from Pricewaterhouse where was working as an audit senior while also working as a part-time tutor at the University of Nairobi’s Faculty of Commerce.
In June 1982, a year after he joined British American, Wairegi was flown to Mauritius for a seven-day familiarisation tour. Port Louis is the financial district of Mauritius, an offshore haven of commerce and industrial activities. It is also the capital of Mauritius, long considered a tax haven by companies.
Today, Wairegi is still at the company having risen through the ranks as general manager in early 1985. He has also witnessed the company transmute from a home service insurance company to a life and pension company, as well as asset management.
The Bramer Bank scandal — which is big news in Mauritius — must have jolted Wairegi. Three weeks ago, on April 3, police were sent to guard all the 20 branches of Bramer while all its ATMs were shut. The fear was how the closure of Bramer, which shares similar directors with Britam would hurt the latter.
Wairegi is a good student of strategic response. His 2004 MBA thesis was titled: Strategic Response of Life Insurance Companies in Kenya to Changes in their Environment.
It was former diplomat Francis Muthaura who released a statement clarifying that apart from common directorships and shareholding held at arm’s length — there is no other relationship of concern.
Married with three children, two sons and a daughter, Wairegi is credited for growing the company beyond all expectations. For a man who mortgaged his house to get Sh600,000 to buy a stake in the company, Wairegi’s astute faith has paid dividends. Today, he holds 5.1 per cent equity in Britam which translates to Sh2.1 billion.
“To succeed in investment you have to start early,” he recently told a local station. But that is not all. To succeed, Wairegi managed to bring other Murang’a billionaires on board and this has helped him push the company to new frontiers.
These include long-time stockbroker Jimnah Mbaru, Peter Munga (chairman and founder of Equity Bank), Equity Bank’s CEO James Mwangi and his wife Jane Wangui. (Jane’s shareholding is under Filimbi Limited, whose other shareholder is Mr Munga).
Wairegi had wanted to grow the company towards Uganda and Tanzania and took it upon himself to survey the market in 1997. While Tanzania had a virgin market, Uganda had many operators who few believed in.
There was another problem since the Kenyan law did not recognise any such investments as “qualified assets” but as liabilities.
Cautiously, but after the law was changed in Kenya, Wairegi walked in — and today his company has a foothold in these countries as well as in South Sudan.
It was the Britam initial public offering which brought on board some 28,000 shareholders that threw Wairegi into the spotlight.
Although he had remained the face of British American Insurance Kenya (Britak), he had always lurked in the background until in 2007 when Nicholas Ashford-Hodges, the London-based chairman appointed him the managing director of the group’s holding company in Kenya.
It was this new organisational structure that saw Wairegi rise to where he is. It all started in 2004 when a share swap took place. At that time, the ownership of British-American Insurance Company (Kenya) Ltd moved to British-American Investments Company.
British-American Investments Company in turn established British-American Asset Managers Ltd which started with assets worth Sh1 billion.
A man who was named the CEO of the Year during the 2013 Company of the Year Awards, Wairegi continues to be the face of Britam presiding over its phenomenal growth.
“I have done this by reading widely. I network with achievers and ambitious people worldwide. Most importantly, I keep in touch with my employees and exercise a lot,” he recently said.
But last year, he had another scare after some of his key employees left to found a separate company. Edwin Dande, the former chief executive of British-American Asset Managers (BAAM) and current managing director of Cytonn, had been accused by Britam of transferring large amounts of its money without authorisation.
But the real bone-of-contention was that the former employees had left the company with one of the largest real estate financing deals it had in the pipeline. It is these battles that have brought Wairegi to the surface, or perhaps sunk him deeper into reclusion. Only time will tell.
But despite all this, Britam is building Nairobi’s tallest tower. From here, he can better watch his tormentors.
