Billionaire investor John Kibunga Kimani raised his stake in Centum Investment Company to 11.51 percent in the year ended March 2026, even as the holding of the estate of Chris Kirubi declined.
Centum has disclosed in its latest annual report that Mr Kimani increased his holding from 69.4 million shares, equivalent to a 10.43 percent stake at the end of March 2025, to 76.59 million shares in the review period.
The additional shares are currently valued at Sh133.38 million based on Centum’s share price of Sh18.60 and mark the continued accumulation of the investment company’s stock by the businessman.
Mr Kimani bought the additional shares in a period when the Centum stock traded at between Sh11.23 and Sh11.86. His entire stake is now valued Sh1.42 billion.
The increase extends a sustained rise in Mr Kimani’s ownership of Centum over the past five years, with his stake more than doubling from 4.39 percent in March 2022 to 11.51 percent in March this year.
His holding stood at 1.24 percent in March 2021, before rising to 4.39 percent in 2022, 5.21 percent in 2023 and 6.87 percent in 2024. He then added more than 23.7 million shares in the year to March 2025, taking his stake to 10.43 percent.
The latest purchase takes his cumulative holding to nearly 9.3 times the 8.26 million shares he owned five years ago.
The increase in Mr Kimani’s stake comes as the ownership structure of Centum’s top shareholders undergoes a slight shift, with the estate of Christopher Kirubi remaining the largest shareholder.
The estate of Mr Kirubi fell by 810,000 shares to 205.1 million shares at the end of March 2026, giving it a 30.82 percent stake compared with the previous year when the stake was 30.94 percent.
The estate has retained its position as Centum’s largest shareholder following the death of Mr Kirubi in June 2021.
Kenya Development Corporation is the second-largest shareholder with 152.85 million shares, representing a 22.97 percent stake, unchanged from the previous year.
Mr Kimani is the third-largest shareholder, ahead of Centum Investment Company, which held 10.84 million shares or 1.63 percent through its share buyback programme.
The top three shareholders collectively controlled 65.3 percent of Centum at the end of March, up from 64.34 percent a year earlier.
The company had 665.44 million issued shares at the end of the latest financial year, with its top 10 shareholders controlling 72.11 percent of the stock.
Centum announced a dividend of Sh521 million with nearly half of it being a special distribution coming on the back of several investment exits in the financial year ended March 2026.
The dividend is made up of an ordinary payout of Sh0.42 per share amounting to Sh281 million and a special distribution of Sh0.36 per share totalling Sh240 million. Mr Kimani will receive Sh59.73 million from the distribution.
Centum proposed the dividend despite the group net profit falling by 8.4 percent to Sh743.91 million from Sh812.81 million posted in the previous financial year. At a company level, net profit rose 87 percent to Sh1.02 billion from Sh547.13 million.
