British Investment firm, Helios Investment Partners, has offloaded its 60 per cent stake in Telkom Kenya, making the company a fully owned state parastatal.
The Kenyan government which previously owned a 40 per cent stake in Telkom now owns the company fully.
Helios through Jamhuri Holdings Limited (JHL), a company owned 100% by HeIios Investors acquired a majority stake in Telkom Kenya back in 2016 through its local subsidiary Orange from France Telecom. The transaction also included an increase in the shareholding of the Kenyan Government in Telkom from 30% to 40%.
Orange exits Kenya after selling Telkom
During the acquisition, Babatunde Soyoye, co-founder and Managing Partner of Helios Investment Partners, said noted that Helios was excited about the opportunity to work with all stakeholders to transform Telkom Kenya into a successful telecommunications operator in Kenya
Jamhuri Holdings Limited notified the government of its intention to exit Telkom in August 2021.
Consequently, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani wrote to Telkom Kenya Chairman Eddy Njoroge, notifying them of the exit with the government purchase of 71.2 million shares.
The collapse of the proposed merger between Telkom and Airtel Kenya following disapproval of the transaction by the government is said to have accelerated the exit.
Exits are a common practice by private equity firms upon successful execution of value creation initiatives.
In 2015, Helios exited Equity Bank Group with the sale of its final stake to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Uganda, following exits to Norwegian investment fund, Norfund and UK investment management firm, Genesis Investment Management LLP.
More recently, Helios exited its investment in Vivo Energy to Vitol Group following an earlier partial exit through a public listing on the London Stock Exchange.
Helios’ current investments are spread across several firms and countries in East Africa in Financial Services, technology, infrastructure, Healthcare, Energy and customer sectors.