East Africa Portland Cement’s (EAPC) biggest shareholder Kalahari Cement has announced an agreement to buy a 27 percent stake in the company held by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) for Sh1.6 billion, even as the Nairobi bourse halted trading on the stock on Wednesday morning citing a lack of notification about the material information on the deal.
Kalahari Cement, which is controlled by Tanzanian tycoon Edhah Abdallah Munif, said in its notice that was published in the media that it reached the share purchase agreement with state-controlled NSSF for the pension fund’s 23.4 million shares, pricing the units at Sh66 each for a total consideration of Sh1.604 billion.
“Kalahari entered into a share purchase agreement with the sellers (NSSF) on November 25, 2025, pursuant to which each of the sellers have accepted Kalahari’s offer to purchase the sale shares…,” Kalahari, whose parent firm is Amsons Group, said in its notice.
If approved by regulators, the purchase will give Mr Munif effective control of EAPC, with an eventual stake of 68.7 percent. He currently holds a 41.7 percent stake in EAPC through Kalahari Cement (29.2 percent) and his wholly owned Bamburi Cement (12.5 percent).
Kalahari is jointly owned by Mauritius-based investment companies Pacific Cement Limited (90 percent) and Comercio Et Consiel Limited (10 percent). The two investment companies are in turn fully owned by Mr Munif.
The purchase price of Sh66 per share in the latest transaction represents a significant premium on the Sh27.30 per share that Kalahari paid to acquire its existing 29.2 stake or 26.32 million shares from Swiss multinational Holcim in a deal that was concluded earlier this month.
Holcim’s exit valuation represented a 46.2 percent discount on EAPC’s prevailing share price of Sh50.75 at the time the deal was announced for the first time on August 1. On the other hand, the NSSF transaction is being valued at the share’s current market price.
EAPC has 90 million issued shares, giving the company a current market valuation of Sh5.94 billion at Wednesday's closing price of Sh66 per share. The Holcim transaction price valued the company at Sh2.46 billion.
Both valuations are, however, well below EAPC’s net asset or book value of Sh20.4 billion, as per the company’s latest audited financial results dated June 2024. The company’s total assets stood at Sh35.19 billion, and total liabilities at Sh14.79 billion.
The EAPC on Wednesday stock saw activity only briefly in the morning before the NSE moved to implement a trading freeze on the counter, describing the news of the transaction as ‘unverified’.
Before the trading halt, investors had traded 6,319 shares, with the price jumping by a near maximum 9.54 percent from Sh60.25 per share to Sh66 —suggesting the market was reacting to the news of the transaction.
“Trading in the shares of EAPC was halted this morning following the circulation of unverified market information regarding a potential share transfer. The halt was implemented in consultation with the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) as a precautionary measure to ensure orderly trading and protect investors while the matter is reviewed,” the NSE said in its notice to the market on Wednesday.
“The NSE is engaging with the issuer to establish the accuracy of the information and will provide further updates once verified details are available.”
Both the NSE and the CMA had not responded to emailed queries on whether they had been made aware of the transaction before trading opened on Wednesday morning.
On its part Kalahari said that it served notice of the transaction on EAPC, the NSE, the CMA and the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) on November 26, 2025, although the fact that the NSE and CMA went ahead to stop trading on the EAPC stock indicated that they had not received the notice before the market opened for the day.
Market rules require listed companies to publish material announcements before the opening of trading, or after the market closes at the end of the day. Announcements made during trading hours usually trigger trading a halt on the security.
Under NSE trading rules, the bourse, in consultation with the CMA, can temporarily stop trading on a specific counter in order to obtain clarification of specific information or report about the firm that has been brought to the attention of the exchange.
Halts are also introduced when there is an unusual market movement in price or volume of a security, and in case of occurrences that could impair transparent, fair and orderly trading of the specific securities.
