Kenyan banking magnate Gideon Muriuki loses $1.6 million in 16 weeks

Kenyan banking magnate Gideon Muriuki has lost nearly $1.6 million from his stake in Co-operative Bank Group, a Nairobi-based financial services group, in the past 16 weeks, as market participants reduced stakes in the group despite reporting a stellar performance in the first quarter of 2022.

Co-Op Bank Group is one of the largest financial institutions in East Africa. Its subsidiaries include Kingdom Securities Limited, Co-optrust Investment Services Limited, Co-operative Consultancy & Insurance Agency Limited, Kingdom Bank Limited, and Co-operative Bank of South Sudan.

Muriuki, the CEO and managing director of Co-operative Bank Group, owns a two-percent stake in the leading financial services group, totaling 102,528,400 shares.

As of press time on July 8, shares in Co-Op Bank Group were trading at Ksh11.5 ($0.098), up 88 basis points from their opening price on the Nairobi Securities Exchange this morning, as the bank’s shares continue to recover after falling below Ksh10.7 ($0.091) in June.

Shares in the Nairobi-based financial services group have fallen from Ksh13.3 ($0.113) on March 18 to Ksh11.5 ($0.098) on July 8, as investors repriced the group’s shares despite a 65.5-percent increase in profit in the first quarter of 2022, from Ksh3.46 billion ($87.05 million) to Ksh5.84 billion ($103.54 million).

As a result of the double-digit decline in Co-Op Bank Group shares, the market value of Muriuki’s two-percent stake has fallen from Ksh1.36 billion ($11.58 million) on March 18 to Ksh1.18 billion ($1.57 million) at the time of writing.

In total, the Kenyan multimillionaire businessman has lost Ksh184.55 million ($1.57 million) in the past 112 days.

Muriuki received a dividend of Ksh102.53 million ($882,400) from his stake in Nairobi-based Co-operative Bank Group on May 30 after the company reported a 53-percent increase in profit at the end of 2021.