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Why veteran stockbrokers are hanging their boots
Kestrel Capital East Africa Limited (KCEAL) Founder Charles Field-Marsham delivers his speech during the 30th anniversary celebration event of Kestrel Capital East Africa ltd held at JW Marriott in Nairobi on October 6, 2025.
Veteran stockbrokerage firms are exiting the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) after years of weak earnings, paving the way for a new crop of investors seeking to ride on technology to draw in more retail investors in a market that has gone without an initial public offering in more than a decade.
Kenya’s capital markets landscape has witnessed the buyouts of four brokerage firms in barely a year, a trend that insiders attribute largely to reduced business, rising competition and the persistent initial public offering (IPO) drought.
The market intermediaries had some of their best years between 2002 and 2007, characterised by a booming market and various IPOs, turbocharging their fees and commissions earned from transactions and advisory roles.
“When they came into the market, the equity market was vibrant. There were very many IPOs and the market was vibrant. There were so many foreign investors investing in the emerging markets and many foreigners were riding on the narrative ‘Africa rising’ to put money in Kenya’s capital markets,” a veteran stockbrokerage and investment banker said.
“But now the business has changed. The ‘Africa rising’ narrative has faded away, we haven’t had an IPO in, I think for more than 10 years and the number of rights issues have reduced significantly. Business has been very low and you know running a brokerage firm is very expensive.”
In September last year (2024) Mauritian financial services provider AXYS Group took full ownership of stockbroker AIB-AXYS Africa after buying the 45 percent stake that was held by local shareholders at a cost of Sh120 million.
Later in November, ONEXIM Group and Renaissance Capital completed the sale of Renaissance Capital's Russian business to the management team led by Maxim Orlovsky, Vladimir Kurov, and Igor Danilenko.
This was a buyout of the Russian operations, which include Renaissance Capital that had acquired the NSE seat previously held by the collapse Francis Thuo.
Then last month, Old Mutual Holdings sold its Kenyan stockbrokerage subsidiary (Old Mutual Securities Ltd (OMS) to a Kenyan fintech Kweli Capital.
Recently (October), a Canadian investor —Charles Field-Marsham— sold stockbrokerage firm Kestrel Capital to a company backed by its management team, making it the latest deal in Kenya’s stockbroking business.
The Kenyan stock market has posted mixed performances for a long time and is yet to hit the peak share prices and market valuations seen at the height of the stock market boom in 2007 when the NSE-20 share rose by over 700 percent in dollar terms and burst through the 6,200 points level for the first time creating overnight millionaires.
Another broker who has already exited the market says ‘veteran’ stockbrokers have become fatigued amid weak returns.
“Most of these investors are fatigued because of the market that has been down for a very long time and they are not sure whether it will ever recover for them to make the money they had anticipated and they are saying may be is the time to move on,” the broker says.
“We are now getting a new crop of investors who think they can do something different using technology. Those investors are buying these firms (stockbrokerage firms). These are people who can apply technology to improve these businesses.”
