Equity Bank chief executive officer James Mwangi. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Equity CEO James Mwangi disclosed on Thursday that Helios was able to get premiums on the market price, then standing below Sh50.
Majority of the large investors who bought out Helios Investment Partners’ 24.99 per cent stake in Equity Bank paid a 10 per cent premium on the market value of the shares, enabling the UK fund to raise up to $500 million (Sh52.5 billion) from the sale.
Equity CEO James Mwangi, who termed Helios exit as a record for sub-Saharan Africa, disclosed Thursday during an investor briefing that Helios was able to get premiums on the market price, then standing below Sh50.
Analysts had previously estimated the size of the sale at about Sh44.1 billion based on the prevailing market prices of the time the PE sold stakes to several investors.
Helios also collected dividends totalling Sh6.5 billion from Equity, taking its total return on investment to about 436 per cent on the original investment of Sh11 billion made in 2007.
“Majority of these shareholders paid a 10 per cent premium on the market price. The highest was nearly Sh52 per share,” said Mr Mwangi. “Hopefully the market will start to load that premium on the share as well.”
Mr Mwangi also disclosed additional institutional investors who took up stakes sold by Helios, which are Investec, African Alliance and Renaissance Capital.
These are additional to the already known buyers of the Helios stake— Norfund and NorFinance, NSSF Kenya, NSSF Uganda and Genesis Investment LLP, whose investments had been disclosed earlier.
Norwegian sovereign fund Norfund and a consortium of partners under the umbrella of NorFinance were the first to conclude the purchase of a 12.5 per cent stake in April, becoming the single-largest shareholder in the bank.
Of the several institutional buyers, only NSSF Uganda and Genesis disclosed the price at which they bought their stakes.
Helios in June sold a 2.44 per cent of its stake in the bank to NSSF Uganda for Sh4.5 billion or Sh50 for each of the 90.3 million shares.
UK-based fund Genesis Investment Management also bought a 4.21 per cent stake in Equity from Helios in the same month for Sh7.3 billion or Sh47.50 for each of the 155.8 million shares. The Genesis sale was carried out through the open market at the NSE.
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