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Quickmart, the Kenyan supermarket chain co-founded by the Kinuthia family, drew bids worth 18.4 billion shillings ($142 million) in its initial public offering, more than the 15 billion shillings ($115 million) it set out to raise.
The offer was oversubscribed by 3.4 billion shillings, or 122.7% subscribed, with strong demand from foreign investors, according to results released on Nov. 6. Quickmart sold 2 billion existing shares at 7.50 shillings each, half of its issued capital, which values the company at about 30 billion shillings ($231 million).
The shares are expected to begin trading on Nov. 12.
A payday for the owners
No new shares were issued, so the proceeds go to the company's shareholders, who sold through Sokoni Retail Kenya Ltd., the holding company that owns Quickmart.
The Kinuthia family held 31.83% of Quickmart through Sokoni Retail before the offer and sold half of that stake, about 636.6 million shares. At the offer price, that sale is worth about 4.77 billion shillings ($36.8 million). The family's remaining shares, also about 636.6 million, are worth the same amount at 7.50 shillings, giving its total holding a value of about 9.55 billion shillings ($73.5 million) before trading begins.
Private equity firm Adenia Partners, which owns 50.79% of Quickmart, also sold half its stake, for about 7.62 billion shillings ($58.6 million). The founders of Tumaini Supermarket, which merged with Quickmart in 2020, and Chief Executive Officer Peter Kang'iri sold half of their holdings as well. Sokoni Retail has agreed not to sell 60% of its remaining shares for two years after the listing.
Overseas money led the way
Overseas institutions anchored the offer. Before it closed, Quickmart accepted firm commitments worth 5.18 billion shillings ($40 million) from three cornerstone investors: MOBILIST, the UK government's public-markets investment program, and 337 Frontier Capital LP, a US-registered investment adviser, with 1.94 billion shillings ($15 million) each, and RWC Asset Management LLP, part of London-based Redwheel, with 1.3 billion shillings ($10 million). The International Finance Corp., the World Bank's private-sector arm, made a conditional commitment of up to 1.94 billion shillings.
Quickmart changed how the shares would be divided during the offer, giving cornerstone investors 48%, Kenyan and East African institutions 32% and foreign investors 8%. The portion reserved for Kenyan and East African retail investors was cut to 12%, from 20% in the original prospectus.
From a Nakuru shop
The business began as Kids Supermarket in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru, founded by the late John Kinuthia and his wife, Zipporah, and later took the Quickmart name. Their son Duncan Kinuthia, a director of the company, led its expansion beyond Nakuru. Adenia bought 51% of Quickmart in 2019 and merged it with Tumaini a year later.
Quickmart now runs 72 stores across 16 counties and reported revenue of 50.4 billion shillings ($389 million) in 2025. Ahead of the listing, it ended a series of contracts linked to its founders as it prepared to operate as a public company.
Figures were converted at KSh129.9 to the dollar.
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