Centum Investments Exits Sidian Bank After 22 Years
Centum Investment Company has completed the sale of its remaining 50% stake in Bakki Holdco Limited, ending its 22-year investment in Sidian Bank. The exit follows six transactions between October 2023 and March 2026, recovering an estimated 5.2 billion shillings against a total entry cost of 4.7 billion shillings. The divestiture included a failed 4.3 billion shilling deal with Nigeria's Access Bank in 2022, before Centum shifted to piecemeal sales. The final exit comes as Sidian, reclassified as a medium-tier lender by the CBK in September 2025, posted a nine-month profit of 1.4 billion shillings.
Parliament Clears Safaricom Stake Sale With Six Conditions
National Assembly approved the sale of a 15% government stake in Safaricom PLC to Vodacom Group on 10 March 2026, clearing the country's largest post-independence divestiture. The KSh 204.3 billion transaction gives Vodacom majority control at 55%. Parliament attached six binding conditions, including no staff redundancies, a 10-year dealer protection period, and ring-fencing of all proceeds into the newly signed National Infrastructure Fund. Four regulatory approvals remain outstanding, including a final determination from the Central Bank of Kenya, which has not yet cleared the change of control over M-Pesa.Aga Khan Sells Nation Media Group Majority Stake to Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Azizi
Tanzania's first dollar billionaire Rostam Azizi is acquiring AKFED's 54.08% stake in Nation Media Group via Taarifa Ltd. Azizi, whose Taifa Group spans LPG, contract mining, aviation, and media, co-founded Mwananchi Communications in 1999 before selling out to NMG. He now returns as majority owner of East and Central Africa's largest independent media house, with regulatory approval expected within three to four months.Kenya Airways Signs Codeshare Deal with American Airline JetBlue
Kenya Airways has entered a codeshare agreement with JetBlue that will allow it to sell seats on JetBlue-operated flights from New York’s JFK Airport to several U.S. cities.
Showmax Folds as Multichoice's New Owner Canal+ Abandons Bid to Rival Netflix
Evidence of this shift is already visible in a distribution partnership between Canal+ and Netflix in Francophone Africa, allowing Netflix subscriptions to be bundled inside Canal+ packages.Indonesian Investor Pulls Out of Suswa Geothermal Project
Indonesia’s state-linked energy company, Pertamina, through its geothermal subsidiary PGEO, has withdrawn from the planned development of the Suswa geothermal field,Nedbank Moves Closer to NCBA Acquisition after CMA Nod
Nedbank’s proposed acquisition of NCBA has advanced after Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority granted an exemption from the mandatory takeover rule, allowing a partial pro-rata offer capped at about 66 percent. Shareholder backing has strengthened, with irrevocable undertakings rising to 77.54 percent of NCBA shares, reducing execution risk as the deal awaits remaining regulatory approvals.Coca-Cola HBC to Acquire Africa's Largest Coca-Cola Bottler at US$ 3.4bn Valuation
Coca-Cola will sell 41.52% out of its 66.52% stake in CCBA to Coca-Cola HBC, and Coca-Cola HBC is acquiring 33.48% of CCBA that is held by GFIConduit Partners With Onafriq to Expand Stablecoin-Powered Payments in Africa
Conduit, a cross-border payments platform leveraging stablecoins, has partnered with Onafriq, Africa’s largest digital payments network, to enhance instant cross-border payments and treasury managementLC Waikiki to Pay KSh 15.5 Mn After Court Finds Binding Deal by Conduct
Justice Njoki Mwangi ruled that a binding commercial relationship arose between the two companies through their conduct, meetings and implementation planning even though a formal logistics agreement was never signed.Rebranding Plans Tanked Stanbic-NCBA Merger, Insiders Say
Standard Bank subsidiary Stanbic Bank's insistence on rebranding NCBA may have been the final nail on the coffin in the long-running merger negotiations,
From Collapse to Control: The Evolution of Bank Mergers & Acquisitions in Kenya
Kenya’s banking sector has consolidated repeatedly over the past four decades through a mix of failure, regulation, and strategic takeovers. From the 1989 state-led rescue that created Consolidated Bank to the regional expansion wave of the 2010s and foreign-led acquisitions in the mid-2020s, mergers and acquisitions have been the system’s primary correction mechanism. What began as crisis containment evolved into scale-driven growth and, more recently, a contest over ownership and control, with foreign capital increasingly shaping governance and strategy across the sector.
