NSE Listed Insurance firm BRITAM, has expressed that it would prefer if a Kenyan investor could take up the 20.3% stake previously held by troubled Mauritian businessman Dawood Rawat. In an interview with KTN business, BRITAM General Manager Mr Benson Wairegi said that they were in talks with the Mauritian government which sezed Dawoot’s stake in April 2015 after it emerged that the businessman was running a Ponzi scheme in his country.Wairegi says that if the deal goes through, they would prefer local investors to take up Rawat’s stake.
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Talking to Aby Agina of KTN Business, Mr Wairegi said that Mr Dawood Rawat had no responsibility over the management of BRITAM,noting that he held just two board seats out the the eleven directors and that was not significant enough for him to influence major decision making of the company.
Mauritius government in 2015 asked a bank in South Africa to help find a buyer for Rawat’ stake in Britam after was seized from the troubled business man.
Mauritius aims to raise Sh12 billion ($118 million) from selling the stake to help repay those who lost money in the Ponzi scheme its selling price of Ksh 21 per share is very high than the current market price of about Ksh 11.95.
Considering the current bear market and the deal goes through,this would further depress the stock to its lowest point due to oversupply in the local open market.
Our view is that Britam should otherwise look for a strategic local investor with a long term view of the company who would take up the stake and hold for some years.
