Table of Contents
Kenyan businessman Suresh Bhagwanji Shah has recorded a loss of Ksh4.3 billion ($38 million) since the year began, as the market value of his stake in Kenyan financial services giant, I&M Group (I&M), slumped below $34 million.
I&M is the Kenya-based non-operating holding for I&M Bank Limited, a leading financial services group that maintains active operations through its banking subsidiaries in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, as well as a joint venture in Mauritius.
Shah, a founding member and non-executive director of I&M, holds a 10.8-percent stake in the Kenyan company, which amounts to 178,514,362 ordinary shares.
The year-to-date loss in Shah’s stake can be linked to a sustained sell-off by investors, as shareholders trimmed down their stakes in an effort to pump cash into financial assets with impressive intrinsic value and upside potential.
Due to this bearish sentiment, I&M shares lost more than half their value during the year despite the acquisition of a 90-percent stake in the Ugandan bank, Orient Bank Limited, and a 25-percent increase in its earnings for the first nine months of 2021.
Research conducted by Billionaires.Africa revealed that the I&M share price since the start of the year has fallen from Ksh45 ($0.398) on Dec. 31 to Ksh20.95 ($0.185) as of press time, Dec. 20.
As a result of the slump, the market value of Shah’s 10.8-percent stake has dropped from Ksh8 billion ($71 million) at the beginning of the year to Ksh3.7 billion ($33 million) as of the time of writing.
This accrued a Ksh4.3-billion ($38 million) loss for the businessman since the start of the year.
I&M reported robust financial results in 2021, as increased interest income coupled with reduced interest expenses delivered a double-digit surge in profit in the first nine months of 2021.
Figures for its first nine months of 2021 revealed that the financial services giant posted a profit of Ksh5.7 billion ($51 million), which represents a 25-percent growth in earnings compared to one year ago.
In an effort to deepen its operations in the region and benefit from the gains embedded in assets diversification, I&M acquired a 90-percent stake in Orient Bank Limited.
During the period under review, the group’s assets rose from Ksh344.7 billion ($3 billion) in 2020 to Ksh399.1 billion ($3.5 billion).
The intelligence satisfies curiosity. The paid briefings satisfy strategy.
Every Monday, Elite subscribers receive an Investor Memo breaking down the deal, the structure and the positioning behind the week's most consequential African wealth story - the kind of analysis that doesn't appear anywhere else.
Twice a month, a Wealth Intelligence brief profiles a single billionaire's holdings, cash flows and expansion pipeline in detail no public source matches.
→ Executive ($25/mo): Daily newsletter + Deep-Dive Reports
→ Elite ($75/mo): Everything above + Investor Memos + Wealth Intelligence + Quarterly Analyst Briefings
Subscribe now
