Former CIC boss sells insurer’s 11m shares after quitting

Former CIC Insurance Group #ticker:CIC chief executive Tom Gitogo has sold 11 million shares he held in the company after he abruptly left the firm.

August regulatory filings show that Mr Gitogo exited the company’s list of top individual investors which includes Nelson Kuria, another former CEO of the company who still holds 14.2 million shares worth Sh30.7 million.

Mr Gitogo was not available to comment on his CIC share trades that have a current market value of Sh23.6 million. He bought the shares while in office in a move that signalled confidence about the insurer’s future prospects in line with share purchases by insiders in general.

Mr Gitogo, however, left the loss-making company abruptly last year. He was paid Sh154.4 million when he cut short his employment contract on October 9, 2019, the insurer disclosed in its latest annual report.

The payout included Sh76.3 million in gratuity which was calculated at 31 percent of the annual basic pay for each year worked.

For the nine months he had served by the time of his departure, he was paid a salary of Sh55.3 million or Sh6.1 million per month and allowances running into Sh22.8 million. In the previous full year (to December 2018), the two pay items had earned him a total of Sh74.8 million.

Mr Gitogo’s five-year contract was to end in February this year but he left prematurely for unexplained reasons. CIC has since appointed Patrick Nyaga, a former executive of Co-op Bank, as its new CEO. Mr Gitogo joined CIC in 2014 when he replaced Nelson Kuria who retired after holding the chief executive position for many years.