Co-operative Bank of Kenya chief executive officer Gideon Muriuki acquired an additional 12 million shares in the lender valued at Sh202.8 million in the first five months of this year, deepening his position as the bank’s largest individual shareholder.
Regulatory filings for May 2025 show that Mr Muriuki has now raised his holding in the bank to 129.53 million shares, equivalent to a 2.19 percent stake, up from two percent at the end of 2024.
This is the first time he has added to his stake in two years, having last bought additional shares in the first half of 2023 when the holding went up from 1.75 percent to two percent.
Shareholding by a company’s executives and directors is usually seen as a signal of confidence about its prospects, hence the close watch placed by investors on corporate actions involving these insiders.
This is especially the case when such insiders buy the shares in the market with their own money, as opposed to cases where executives’ holdings are bolstered by grants or heavily discounted share options as part of their compensation.
Co-op Bank’s share price is currently trading at Sh16.90, having gained 3.6 percent since the beginning of the year.
Over a longer period of one year, the share has gained 31 percent, amid a general appreciation in bank stock prices as sector profitability and dividend payments recorded an increase.
All 11 listed banks have recorded double digit percentage price gains over the last 12 months, led by HF Group at 81.4 percent, DTB Group at 70.8 percent and I&M Holdings at 67 percent.
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data shows that in the first quarter of 2025, commercial banks increased their gross profit by Sh15.1 billion to Sh73.5 billion, from Sh58.5 billion in the quarter ended December 2024.
The CBK attributed the higher profits to a bigger decrease in costs (by Sh27.6 billion) compared to a decrease in income (Sh12.6 billion).
For Co-op Bank, net earnings for the first quarter of the year grew by 5.3 percent to Sh6.9 billion, as higher income from lending helped reduce the impact of higher operating expenses.
Net interest income grew by 21.7 percent to Sh14.2 billion, while non funded income declined marginally by 1.9 percent fromSh7.1 billion to Sh6.9 billion.
Operating expenses grew by 19.1 percent to Sh11.7 billion, raising its cost-to-income ratio to 45.5 percent from 44.1 percent in the same period in 2024.
Kingdom Bank, in which Co-op Bank has a 90 percent stake, saw its net profit for the quarter drop by 57.9 percent to Sh143.98 million, weighed down by a 30.8 percent increase in operating expenses to Sh501.16 million as net interest income fell by 16.6 percent to Sh523.8 million.
Co-op Bank acquired the lender —previously mired in heavy losses— in 2020 via a Sh1 billion rescue deal arranged by the CBK.
