Billionaire businessman Peter Munga has joined forces with the firm behind the planned Sh468 billion expressway between Nairobi and Mombasa in a partnership that offers the tycoon a piece of the lucrative infrastructure sector.
Everstrong Capital, a US-based infrastructure investment firm incorporated in Mauritius and behind the mega road project, is now part of a company under Mr Munga’s business empire called Quickpass Limited.
The investment firm is seeking final approval to build a 4-6 lane dual carriage, which is expected to be the largest toll road project in Africa and to ease congestion on the busy highway to and from the port of Mombasa.
Investors will recoup their money by charging motorists toll fees over a period of 30 years, providing lucrative cash flow.
The US firm has a 50 percent stake in Quickpass, which is housed at Mr Munga’s office at Muthaiga in Nairobi, says regulatory filings on company ownerships and directorships.
Kiewa Group, which is owned by Mr Munga’s family, owns the remaining half of Quickpass, a firm formed in July 2018.
Everstrong, a private equity firm, was started in the US by Philip William Dyk, often described as an infrastructure “dealmaker.”
A bigger highway between Mombasa and Nairobi has been on the wishlist of successive governments, aiming to ease congestion on the busy road.
Mr Dyk is one of the directors of Quickpass, together with Mr Munga’s son, Alex Kieme Munga.
Other directors of Quickpass are Mr Munga’s daughter-in-law, Emilly Kairimu Kanina, a Kenyan known as John Paul Ouko and Mandhla Sibanda, a Zimbabwean national. The firm’s secretary is listed as Cornelius Kimamo Kigera.
Fondly known as the founder of Equity Bank, Mr Munga has over the years become a serial entrepreneur with a foothold in different sectors from agribusiness to insurance, education and industrials.
He has harvested hundreds of millions of shillings from the sale of Britam and Equity Bank shares in recent years.
Mr Munga on Wednesday promised to call back when asked about his interest in the expressway, while appearing to back the mega project.
“But isn’t it a good project?” wondered the billionaire investor in a telephone conversation.
These revelations highlight Mr Munga’s strategic interest in one of Kenya’s largest infrastructure projects, and show how the appetite for dealmakers has shifted to public-private partnership (PPP) deals.
The US-based private equity firm’s local subsidiary is Everstrong Capital (Kenya), where it owns all the 5,124 shares.
Mr Dyk is joined on its board by Kyle Lee MC Carter, a former US ambassador to Kenya. The other director of the local subsidiary of Everstrong Capital is its managing director, Henry Kinyua Kyanda, while its secretary is Antony Munialo.
Everstrong Capital plans to partner with local pension funds, international lenders, and development finance institutions to finance and deliver the 440-kilometre toll road.
It will be financed, constructed, and operated by the private consortium in a 30-year concession period before being handed back to the Kenyan government under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model.
This method allows for major infrastructure rollouts without worsening the country’s debt levels.
However, the PPP committee rejected the Project Development Report (PDR) on July 2, noting that it “did not meet the relevant criteria.”
Everstrong, together with the Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha), can, however, bring back the PDR once they have fixed the undisclosed gaps.
The government has positioned the project as a solution to the ageing Mombasa Road, which is notorious for traffic delays.
Upon completion, the expressway is expected to cut travel time between the country’s capital and its main port of Mombasa from over 10 hours to just under 4.5 hours.
Mr Munga stepped down as the chair of Equity in 2018 after being at the helm of the bank for more than three decades.
Since exiting the banking stage, he seems to have shifted his focus to industrial investments, including agribusiness, manufacturing, and infrastructure.
Official records show that Mr Munga has a 92 percent stake in Equatorial Nuts Processors, and his business associate James Karanja owns eight percent.
Equatorial Nuts Processors is located a few kilometres from Maragua town and was established in 1994 to process macadamia nuts, peanuts and cashew nuts.
Mr Munga directly owns 75 million shares in Britam and has significant ownership in two investment vehicles—EH Venture Capital and EHL 2022—that have a combined 405 million shares worth Sh3.42 billion.
Everstrong Capital, led by Mr Dyk, has maintained a relatively low profile in the public domain but is increasingly emerging as a key infrastructure financier in East Africa.
In addition to its flagship road project, the firm has interests in energy (including Athi River’s Gulf Power Plant), telecoms (SealTowers), and e-mobility (EV Africa).
The choice of Mauritius as the country of registration for Everstrong Capital is not uncommon for international infrastructure deals, thanks to the island nation’s favourable tax laws, confidentiality provisions and double-taxation treaties.
Due to the high level of secrecy in Mauritius, it is not clear who owns Everstrong Capital.
Should its bid sail through, and the company reaches financial closure, it is expected to build and operate one of the largest infrastructure projects in the country, charging toll fees for approximately 30 years. It is also not clear what specific role Quickpass plays in the execution of the Nairobi-Mombasa Expressway.
If successful, the expressway will join other major projects, such as the standard gauge railway, the Thika Superhighway, and the Nairobi Expressway.
