2013 Final Kenyan M&A: Brookside, Fina, Vipingo

Recent deals completed approved by the Competition of Authority of Kenya include

Banking

- The acquisition of 70% of Fina Bank (Kenya) by Guaranty Trust Bank (Nigeria).  The resulting Institution shall be called Guaranty Trust Bank Kenya Limited.

-  The acquisition of the voting & veto rights of ETC Group (Mauritius) by Standard Chartered Private Equity Mauritius, Prif Afrivest, and CSSAF

Food

The acquisition of all business and assets of Buzeki Dairy by Brookside Dairy

Exceptions

The Competition Authority excluded the acquisition of the mobile money agency business of PEP Intermediaries from the provisions of the Competition Act as the merger would not affect competition negatively and the combined turnover of merging entities of  KSh. 600 million ($7 million) was below the required merger threshold for mandatory notification.

The Authority also excluded the acquisition of the 55% of participating interest in Block 2B in Kenya by Premier Oil Investments from Lion Petroleum from the provisions of the Competition Act as the transaction entities fall under an excluded sector  and the merger would not affect competition negatively.

Others Transfers

The public transport business of  Wuthering Heights Travels, in Githunguri, has been sold and transferred to Da Bridge Logistics Company. 

Other Deal Making

The year ended with a still unresolved three0way battle for Rea Vipingo which is listed at the Nairobi Stock Exchange and was trading at about Kshs 28 ($0.32) per share.

- First was an offer by the REA Trading a UK group comprising the largest shareholders in the company buy out the minority shareholders at Kshs 40 per share and delist the company. -  A few days later there was a counter-bid by Centum Investments who offered to buy out other shareholders at Kshs 50 per share and have Vipingo remain listed at the NSE 

- Then there was a third offer for the company, this one by Bid Investments - offering Kshs 55 per share, and also with a declared intent to leave the company listed at the NSE. 

The attraction of Vipingo appears to be its land holdings, and a trend of delisting of companies at the Nairobi Securities Exchange remains a sore point with minority shareholders of companies – and the may tip the balance of offers,

The Unquiet African blog has more on the Vipingo battle, and also speculates on future M&A deals at companies like Airtel, Safaricom, Wananchi and Kenya Railways.