Local billionaire Baloobhai Patel bought millions of Bamburi Cement shares just a few months to the proposed buyout by Tanzanian firm Amsons Group. Mr. Patel acquired the Bamburi shares through his holding company which is known as Aksaya Investment Holdings.
According to shareholder filings that were quoted by a local newspaper on Tuesday, Mr. Patel’s stake in Bamburi as at December 2023 stood at 14.96 million which was equivalent to a stake of 4.12 per cent.
As the time, Mr. Patel’s stake was valued at Sh. 35.85 million from a trading price of Sh. 536.2 million.
Six months later, as at June 2024, Mr. Patel had increased his stake in the cement manufacturer to 30.52 million shares, an equivalency of 8.41 per cent. As at the close of trading on Monday July 15 when the Bamburi shares were trading at Sh. 60.25, this stake was worth Sh. 1.83 billion.
Bamburi last week experienced a meteoric rise at the Nairobi Securities Exchange after news spread on the multi-billion takeover offer by Amsons Group.
A day after the takeover announcement, the Bamburi 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.
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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.
“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.”