Companies

Planned sale of Giraffe Ark flops

ark

The Giraffe Ark Game Lodge in Nyeri County. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU

The planned sale of Giraffe Ark Game Lodge Limited and Anchor flour milling company has flopped despite getting a go-ahead from the regulator.

Businessman Peter Muthee, who has shares in the companies, said in an interview that the firms are no longer on sale after the transaction fell through in August.

The Competition Authority of Kenya had in late November given the Nyeri businessman and Archaic Industries Limited, the prospective buyer, the green light to complete the deal. It was however not immediately clear how much stake Archaic Industries was looking to purchase. “…the Competition Authority excludes the proposed acquisition of the business and assets of Giraffe Ark Game Lodge Limited by Archaic Industries Kenya Limited from the provisions of Part IV of the Act due to the following reasons…,” said a notice signed by the CAK Director-General Wang’ombe Kariuki.

Giraffe Ark is an iconic facility in the Mount Kenya region.

“The transaction will not affect competition negatively, the acquirer is a newly incorporated company and had no turnover for the preceding year 2017 while the target’s turnover was Sh51.4 million and the transaction meets the threshold for exclusion under the merger threshold guidelines,” he said.

Mergers whose undertakings have a minimum combined threshold of Sh1 billion and turnover of target undertaking is above Sh100 million can be considered for exclusion from the law.