Centum Investments is set to make almost fivefold of initial investments made through the sale of its shareholding in Almasi Beverages and Nairobi Bottlers Limited.
The firm which invests in listed firms and private companies said it had entered an agreement to sell its stake in the two companies with a total valuation of Sh19.5 billion in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. This is after acquiring the shareholding at a combined historical cost of the two assets at Sh3.4 billion.
“The achieved exit valuation speaks to the success of our investment cycle and portfolio management strategy that included consolidation of three bottlers into Almasi Beverages and acquisition of majority stake in the business,” Centum CEO James Mworia said in a statement.
The investment firm expects the sale to Coca Cola Beverages Africa to be finalised within the next four months with the transaction subject to regulatory approval.
Since the commencement of its strategy period in 2014, the firm has raised Sh36.3 billion through either full or partial exits from its investment portfolio. This resulted in realised capital gains of Sh24.3 billion.
“The proceeds from these transactions will be applied towards repaying our current U.S. dollar-denominated bank term loans of Sh7.5 billion, which will result in finance cost savings of 700 Shmillion,” Centum said in a statement.
The balance from the proceeds is set to be invested in the firm’s private equity and marketable securities portfolio.
Centum also said it plans to invest an extra Sh10-15 billion in sectors it was already familiar with via its private equity arm over the next five years.
In its recently released financial results for the year ended March 2018, Centum’s total comprehensive income grew 22.27 per cent to Sh2.91 billion compared to Sh2.38 billion the same period last year.
Its net asset value per share rose to Sh79.1 from Sh73.2 the previous year.
Investment income fell to Sh3.2 billion from Sh3.5 billion the year before due to the sale of one of its businesses, GenAfrica Asset Managers, in the previous financial year.
Centum, which also has shares in a vehicle assembly, catering company, publisher and commercial bank, said its total assets rose to Sh101.76 billion from Sh96.29 billion.
