Foreign investors cut their collective stake in KCB Group by 51.3 million shares valued at Sh2.35 billion in the first five months of the year, offloading the stock to local institutional buyers.
Regulatory filings show that the number of shares of the bank in the hands of foreigners stood at 304.16 million units at the end of May, equivalent to a stake of 9.47 percent, from a four-year high of 355.48 million shares or 11.06 percent at the end of December 2024.
Local institutional investors, on the other hand, raised their holdings by 53.25 million shares to 2.077 billion units in the period, increasing their stake in the lender from 62.98 percent to 64.63 percent.
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) was among the institutional investors that increased their stake in the bank, making an additional purchase of 9.1 million shares valued at Sh417.7 million at the current share price.
The NSSF therefore held 330.83 million KCB shares at the end of May, valued at Sh15.19 billion and equivalent to 10.3 percent of the lender’s issued shares.
Local individual investors, meanwhile, reduced their collective stake by 1.93 million shares to 832.38 million units, equivalent to 25.9 percent of the total shares.
The reduction in the stake held by offshore investors came after a period of high capital gains on the KCB share, which was among the best performing at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) in 2024.
It gained 90 percent to end the year at Sh41.60 per share, adding or Sh63.3 billion in market capitalisation to Sh133.7 billion—the measure of investor wealth.
In the five months to May 2025, the share gained 1.2 percent to Sh42.10, but a mini rally since the beginning of June has seen its year-to-date gain rise to 10.3 percent, with a price of Sh45.90 per share and a market cap of Sh147.5 billion.
In 2024, foreign investors accumulated KCB shares at the fastest pace in a decade, adding 69 million shares to their collective holdings.
They were set to reap handsome capital gains following the bank’s share price rally, with the subsequent sales pointing to some profit taking activities among the investors.
For local investors who bought shares in the first five months of this year, the dividend payout of Sh1.50 per share in May helped make up for the relatively low capital gains in the period.
KCB announced the final dividend on March 13 when releasing its full-year 2024 financial results, where net profit rose by 66.1 percent to Sh60 billion. The bank closed its books for the dividend on April 3, before making the distribution on May 23.
It had earlier paid an interim dividend of Sh1.50 per share in October for the half-year to June 2024, when its net earnings for the period went up by 87 percent to Sh29.1 billion.
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