Centum paid Sh194 million to buy a 37.5 percent stake from Danish private fund DI Frontier and Sh39 million to buy out American RAM Energy.
The purchases saw Centum’s stake in the power generating company rise to 85 percent, from 37.5 percent, giving it control of the company whose balance sheet is at Sh3.5 billion.
Centum disclosed it is looking for new partners in the power generating venture, which has been unsuccessful so far with two sunk wells not having steam.
“Securing control of the company was meant to facilitate the acceleration of the development process of the first phase of the project, by onboarding of a new strategic partner into the project,” said the company in its annual report.
Centum said exit of its founding partners was not due to dim prospects of the project but driven by the strategic position of the two funds.
“One of the partners, the larger one is a private fund that had reached the end of their life while the other was a development partner who was to exit upon achievement of set mark,” said Centum’s Chief Executive James Mworia.
Marine Power Generation is the remaining partner with a 15 percent stake.
Akiira has access to a concession area covering up to 480 square kilometres located near the geothermal-rich Olkaria in the outskirts of Naivasha.
It dug up two wells in 2018 which lacked steam sufficient for production capacity.
Centum disclosed Akiira is presently raising equity and debt capital to complete the appraisal and construction stages of the project, so as to get to commercial operation.
“The two drilled wells have heat and now there is technology that can resolve that and make them productive,” said Mr Mworia.
Centum disclosed Sh3.5 billion had already been spent by Akiira in construction of the two dug wells.
“The amounts disclosed –Sh3.5 billion— refers to the construction work in progress that was held in the Akiira balance sheet as at 31 March 2025 and which is now being consolidated by Centum since Akiira is now accounted for as a subsidiary,” said Centum in response to Business Daily queries.
Centum investment in Akiira has exceeded Sh2 billion with its initial investment having been Sh1.97 billion which when added to the acquisition of the extra stake puts their outlay at Sh2.2 billion. The book value of the investment at the end of March 2025 was Sh1 billion.
Centum’s venture in the energy sector has been a bumpy ride having been forced to write off its Sh2 billion investment in coal-fired power generation.
Centum had in 2016 partnered with Gulf Energy to form Amu Power to enter into coal power generation in Lamu which stalled due to uncertainties surrounding government approvals and funding.
The project suffered several setbacks including the revocation of environmental permit, delays in raising funds from banks and the announcement by technical partner General Electric that it was exiting the coal business.
The challenges faced by Centum underscore the high risk undertaken by companies in energy exploration and the reason as to why the country is still grappling with insufficient power supply amidst high prices.
This has seen private investment in power generation dominated by foreign firms with deep pockets to finance the capital intensive ventures such as Rabai Power Limited owned by UK development fund British International Investment (BII).
