Kenyan tycoon David Langat's DL Group denies tea asset sale reports as financial pressure mounts

DL Group of Companies, the Kenyan conglomerate founded by billionaire businessman Dr. David Langat, has formally denied reports circulating online that it is in talks to sell its tea assets, calling the claims inaccurate, misleading and entirely inconsistent with the company's actual position.

In a notice issued on May 7, DL Group said it was responding to reports on various online platforms suggesting that another company was in discussions to acquire its tea operations. "The viewpoints expressed by this publication do not represent the company's position at all, and we emphatically denounce the contents therein," the statement said. The company said it remains fully operational with no changes to its business strategy or asset ownership.

The reports the company was responding to followed a Billionaires.Africa investigation published in late April which disclosed that Kipchimchim Group, one of Kenya's most aggressive agricultural acquirers, had been in talks to buy the DL Koisagat Tea Estate in Nandi County. Neither Kipchimchim nor representatives linked to Langat had commented publicly on those reported talks before DL Group issued its denial.

The timing of the denial matters because it arrives during a period of sustained and documented financial pressure on the group. A Kenyan court issued a freeze order on three parcels of land belonging to Langat and his spouse in April 2026, following an application by Synergy Industrial Credit Ltd seeking to recover Sh87 million in vehicle loans advanced to DL Koisagat Tea Estate Ltd in 2016. The loans were meant to be repaid in monthly instalments over 48 months concluding in May 2020. They were not repaid as agreed. The affected land parcels cover sites in Cheptalal in Kericho County, Kiplombe in Eldoret and Kaptel in Nandi County.

The Koisagat estate itself has been through multiple prior auction threats. Auctioneers acting for Transnational Bank filed public notices in July 2023 to sell the estate and a Mombasa property DL Group uses for tea handling and packaging, citing a debt of Sh2.1 billion. That auction was called off without public explanation. The same properties were relisted for a second forced auction in September 2024, with the estate valued at approximately $14.73 million against an underlying bank debt of approximately $15.5 million. The September 2024 auction also did not complete. The properties remain in DL Group's hands.

Koisagat is Langat's most prominent agricultural asset. Located in Nandi Hills within the Great Rift Valley, the estate spans approximately 1,342 acres, with 2.47 million tea bushes covering 958 acres. It was among the first Kenyan operations to grow and process purple tea when it introduced the variety in 2013, supplying Tetley UK and building export routes into European and Chinese markets where purple tea commands a premium price. The estate supplies several hundred smallholder farmers in the surrounding community alongside its own commercial output.

DL Group describes itself as East Africa's largest tea producer, with operations across Kenya and Tanzania spanning more than 35,000 acres under cultivation. Beyond agriculture, the group has investments in renewable energy, a 700-acre Special Economic Zone in Eldoret, real estate including Nyali Mall in Mombasa, and a healthcare facility under development in Eldoret in partnership with Apollo Hospitals. It employs more than 30,000 people across eight countries.

Langat, 59, built the group from a trading business he started in Mombasa in the mid-1980s dealing in electronics and furniture before expanding into tea, real estate and logistics. He was appointed by President William Ruto to the National Investment Council alongside other prominent Kenyan entrepreneurs. In September 2024, at his mother's burial, Langat made remarks widely interpreted as a reproach of Ruto, suggesting the president had extracted campaign financing from him without honoring commitments made in return. A political activist who posted more explicit allegations about that dynamic was arrested and arraigned in court the following month.