Bamburi Cement shares on Thursday experienced a meteoric rise at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. This came after news spread on a multi-billion takeover offer from Tanzanian conglomerate Amsons Group.

A day after the takeover announcement, the Bamburi Cement shares shot up Sh. 45 per share to end the day at Sh. 57.75 per share. This was equivalent to a Sh. 12.75 per share gain which equaled to a gain of 28.33 per cent in a single trading day.

During the day’s trading, the stock touched a high of Sh. 60 per share and a low of Sh. 49.60 per share.

On Friday, the Bamburi counter kicked off trading with a 3.90 per cent gain to Sh. 60 per share from the previous day’s trading price of Sh. 57.75 per share.

The Tanzanian conglomerate has made an offer of $180 million (Sh. 23.2 billion). This takeover valuation has been arrived at from Amsons Group offer of Sh. 65 per share of Bamburi Cement for all shares. This means that the offer was a premium on the Sh. 45 per share that Bamburi had as at the close of trading on July 10.

The proposed acquisition, if successful, will be the largest in the east African region. “Our offer to acquire shares in Bamburi is part of our corporate market expansion plan,” Amsons Group Managing Director, Edha Nahdi, said.

Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa’s salary declines to Sh. 252.3 million

“This acquisition will mark the formal entry of Tanzania’s Amsons Group into the Kenyan market, where we plan to make investments in other industries in the coming months. We have great plans to deepen our investment in Kenya and in Bamburi Cement.”

According to a breakdown on the shareholding of the cement maker, the top ten shareholders at Bamburi are led by Fincem Holding Limited who are the top shareholders with a stake of 29.30 per cent. They hold this position jointly with Kencem Holding Limited who also have a stake of 29.30 per cent.