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The Kinuthia family, which built Kenyan supermarket chain Quickmart from a single store in Nakuru, stands to collect about KSh 4.77 billion, or $36.8 million, as the retailer’s owners sell half the company in an initial public offering on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
The family owns 31.83% of Quickmart through the holding company Sokoni Retail Kenya and is selling half that stake in the offer. It will keep shares of the same value after the listing, leaving it with a holding worth another KSh 4.77 billion at the offer price.
Quickmart is offering 2 billion existing shares, half its share capital, at KSh 7.50 each. If the offer is fully taken up, the owners will raise KSh 15 billion, about $116 million, and the sale will value the company at KSh 30 billion, or about $231 million. Quickmart itself will receive none of the money, because only existing shareholders are selling.
From Nakuru to Nairobi
The business began as Kids Supermarket in Nakuru, founded by the late John Kinuthia and his wife, Zipporah. It was later renamed Quickmart.
“I am very happy, I feel like crying because I didn’t know we were going to make it and reach this level,” Zipporah Kinuthia told Citizen Digital, speaking partly in Swahili.
Their son, Duncan Kinuthia, took the chain beyond its home town, opening its first Nairobi branch in Ruai. “When you come from village to Nairobi, nobody believes in you. I could not even get credit from our suppliers,” he said. Duncan, a director of the company, is selling 414.6 million shares in the offer, worth about KSh 3.1 billion, or $24 million, Business Daily reported.
The expansion drew the attention of private equity firm Adenia Partners. Adenia bought 55% of rival chain Tumaini Supermarket in 2018 and 51% of Quickmart the following year, then merged the two businesses in 2020 under the Quickmart name. “Since Adenia initiated the merger with Tumaini, the pace of growth has been quite fast,” said Martha Osier, a partner at Adenia.
Who gets what
Adenia owns 50.79% of the company, the Kinuthia family 31.83%, Tumaini’s founders 12.02% and chief executive Peter Kang’iri 5.36%. All four are selling half their holdings.
If the offer is fully subscribed, Adenia will receive about KSh 7.62 billion, or $58.8 million. Tumaini founders Moses Nditika, Joram Ngeruro Njoga and Elijah Omullo Okello will share about KSh 1.8 billion, or $13.9 million. Kang’iri stands to receive about KSh 804 million, or $6.2 million.
The offer opened on Oct. 5 and closes on Oct. 30, with trading due to begin on Nov. 12. Retail investors can buy a minimum of 500 shares, or KSh 3,750. The sale will only go ahead if investors take up at least 75% of the shares on offer.
Quickmart reported revenue of KSh 27.27 billion and profit after tax of KSh 872.8 million in the first half of 2026. It projects adjusted earnings of about KSh 2.32 billion for the full year, which puts the offer price at about 12.9 times earnings, and plans to pay a dividend of KSh 2 billion, or KSh 0.50 a share, for 2026. That implies a yield of about 6.7% at the offer price.
The listing is one of the largest by a Kenyan retailer in years and comes after a long drought of new listings on the Nairobi bourse.
Dollar figures are based on an exchange rate of about KSh 129.6 to the dollar.
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