At least four major investors have left the Nairobi Securities Exchange billionaires club. This is after a prolonged bear run that has been running for over two years now ate into their paper wealth.
The four include Leah Muguku who owns a stake in Equity Bank, Bharat Thakrar who is the chief executive officer of Scangroup, and Simon Thuo and Franklin Ndii who are shareholders at Equity Bank.
The four have all seen their paper wealth fall below the Sh. 1 billion mark. For instance, Bharat Thakrar’s 51.8 million shares in Scangroup are now valued at Sh. 893.7 million based on the current trading price of around Sh. 17 per share.
This means that his paper wealth has shrunk by 2.9 billion from the Sh. 3.8 billion valuation he had at the peak of a bull run in August 2013. Back then, WPP Scangroup’s shares were trading at Sh. 75 a piece.
On the other hand, Leah Muguku’s 32.8 million shares are now worth Sh. 984.9 million based on Equity’s trading price of around Sh.30.
Simon Thuo’s 26 million shares are now valued at Sh. 780.4 million while Franklin Ndii’s 20 million shares are now valued at Sh. 600 million.
In January 2015, the stakes of these three Equity Bank investors were well above the Sh. 1 billion mark respectively. Ms Muguku’s shares were valued at Sh 1.7 billion while those of Mr Thuo and Mr Ndii stood at Sh 1.4 billion and Sh 1.09 billion.
However, not all NSE investors have lost their billionaire statuses. For instance, James Mwangi the CEO of Equity Bank, Jimnah Mbaru the chairman of Dyer and Blair Investment Bank, Pradeep Paunrana the CEO of ARM Cement, Peter Munga the chairman of Equity Bank and Benson Wairegi the CEO of Britam have all maintained their billionaire statuses. However, they have not escaped the ruthlessness of the on-going bear run.
For instance, chairmen Munga and Mbaru have lost lost Sh9.8 billion and Sh6 billion respectively in Britam alone after the share fell from a peak of Sh. 40 to the current low of Sh. 10 each.