Companies
Ex-BOC Kenya chairman raises stake to 8.5 percent
Tuesday July 18 2023
Tycoon, Ngugi Kiuna. PHOTO | GENEVIEVE OWINO | NMG
Former BOC Kenya chairman Ngugi Kiuna has raised his stake in the company to a new high of 8.56 percent as a tribunal takes up a petition he filed seeking to block the buyout of the medical and industrial gases manufacturer.
Read: Former BOC chair Kiuna ups stake as buyout frozen
Mr Kiuna has been buying more BOC Kenya shares after the company received a takeover offer of Sh63.5 per share or a total of Sh1.2 billion in the form of a joint bid by Carbacid Investments Plc and Aksaya Investments LLP.
He described the offer as undervaluing BOC Kenya when he filed the petition at the Capital Markets Tribunal in March 2021.
A 10 percent stake controlled by a single or multiple investors gives them the power to block a delisting of a Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm, according to Kenya’s capital markets regulations.
Mr Kiuna bought an additional 93,826 shares worth Sh7.2 million in the year ended March 2023, according to BOC Kenya’s latest annual report.
This raised his ownership to 8.56 percent from 8.08 percent the year before. The purchases have entrenched his position as the second-largest investor in the company after BOC Holdings (UK) agreed to sell its 65.38 percent to Carbacid at the offer price.
Read: Court spares tycoon from Sh120 million in Heineken suit
The tribunal had not acted on the objection filed by Mr Kiuna owing to vacancies which were filled recently.
The hearing of the buyout matter was planned to start last Thursday.
