Kenyan tycoon Peter Muthoka pockets $19 million profit selling his airport cargo business

Peter Muthoka cleared a profit of 2.5 billion shillings selling his airport cargo business, roughly $19 million, having sold it for close to twice the value of the assets inside it.

Celebi Cargo GmbH, the Frankfurt arm of the Turkish aviation group Celebi, bought every share in Transglobal Cargo Centre on Dec. 23, 2025 for $40.1 million, or €34.5 million, about 5.2 billion shillings. The profit figure emerged in reporting published on Monday, Sept. 28.

Transglobal handles more export cargo than anyone else at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, with 33% of the market against 22% for Kenya Airways Cargo, and about a fifth of Kenya's air freight imports. It trades as Africa Flight Services out of Embakasi in Nairobi and employs several hundred people.

Debt is part of why it went. Transglobal had borrowed to upgrade its facilities, and Muthoka has used the proceeds to repay that and to fund Acceler Global Logistics, the freight company he founded in 1991 and still runs. Standard Chartered Bank Kenya has been his main financier.

He was also losing ground. Transglobal faced rising competition before the sale and risked losing major contracts, among them the Emirates SkyCargo account.

Muthoka treated the deal as unremarkable. When Kenyan media reported it in January he questioned whether the transaction merited coverage at all, and said he had sold in order to build.

He has done this before, and larger. Muthoka was the biggest individual shareholder in CMC Motors, the car distributor, until he sold his stake to Dubai's Al-Futtaim Group for close to $20 million in 2014.

Most of his wealth has never been in the businesses he runs. His holdings in listed Kenyan companies alone have been valued above 4.5 billion shillings, and he is known in Nairobi for buying into blue chip companies and holding them for years rather than trading. He has owned Thika Coffee Mills and Kenya Alliance Insurance, with further interests spanning dairy farming, motor dealing, confectionery manufacturing and wine.

Acceler turns over more than $50 million a year and employs over 5,000 people, and the World Customs Organisation recognised the group's work in 2016. It has had difficulties too. Creditors filed a winding-up petition against Acceler in 2018, claiming money owed and asking the court to liquidate its assets.

Muthoka built his career on the public side of trade before the private one. He was the founder and first chief executive of Kenya's Export Promotion Council, and served as the country's commissioner-general at the Expo 2000 world fair in Hannover. Uhuru Kenyatta later made him an Elder of the Order of the Golden Heart, and appointed him to a public role after winning re-election in 2017.

His influence runs into politics as well. Muthoka is one of the most significant financial figures in Ukambani, the Kamba heartland east of Nairobi, and has appeared alongside Kalonzo Musyoka at gatherings of regional leaders.

The buyer got instant scale for its money. Celebi moves around 200,000 tonnes of cargo a year at Frankfurt and had no Kenyan operations at all, which is why the competition regulator cleared the purchase without conditions, finding that market shares would not change. It said Celebi is expected to invest further in facilities, equipment and staff.

Foreign buyers now hold most of the ground at Nairobi's airport. National Aviation Services of Kuwait took 51% of Siginon Aviation for $40 million in 2021, and Celebi's purchase leaves the two largest cargo handlers at JKIA in foreign hands, alongside Swissport and Mitchell Cotts.