Seven months ago, Asahi Group Holdings agreed to buy Diageo's controlling stake in East African Breweries — a $ 2.3 billion transaction, one of the largest cross-border deals the local market has seen in years, and one from which the Exchequer stood to gain roughly Sh40 billion in capital gains tax alone. Seven months on, the deal remains stuck.
The latest development is that the competition authority has escalated the matter to the Attorney-General — an implicit admission that the regulator itself is unsure of its own footing.
