Driving school firm AA Kenya has raised Sh81 million from its recent cash call, underperforming the target of Sh229 million. The capital-raising offer, which ran from October to November last year, represents a performance rate of 35.3 percent.
The board of AA Kenya said the new capital was raised in a difficult operating environment.
“This has been achieved despite the high interest rate hikes by the Central Bank of Kenya that were aimed at stabilising the shilling currency, whose depreciation had spurred price pressures, curbed foreign investments and affected debt-servicing,” the firm said in a statement.
“The board considers this to be a big success and a strong statement of confidence the shareholders have in AA Kenya.”
The restricted offer had set out to sell 7.76 million new shares at a price of Sh25.8 to members of AA Kenya Holding Company Limited and an additional Sh3.68 million shares at Sh8 each to staff of the company.
The cash call formed part of a capital raising initiative by the company which seeks to scale up its business through diversification and expansion, aligning its operations to other AA clubs globally.
AA Kenya is seeking to diversify product and service offerings, expand its geographic footprint within Kenya and Eastern Africa, innovate, automate its business and roll out the Africa School of Mobility.
The objectives are part of the firm’s 2022 to 2026 strategy.
AA Kenya main offerings currently include driving schools, vehicle valuation services, and inspection, membership and road rescue, defensive driver programmes, garage inspection and certification, tracking and fleet management and vehicle service centers.
The company has a network of 57 branches across Kenya and a single subsidiary in AA Insurance Brokers.
In six months of operations through June 2023, the company had revenues of Sh433.3 million and a surplus or profit of Sh36.3 million.
