Centum Investment Company has completed the sale of its entire remaining interest in Sidian Bank, closing a 22-year investment that began as a speculative 1.66% stake in a microfinance institution and ends with total cash recoveries that appear to exceed the original entry cost.
- •The NSE-listed investment firm announced on 12 March 2026 that it had sold its 50% stake in Bakki Holdco Limited, the holding vehicle through which it owned 13.6% of Sidian Bank.
- •In May 2024, Centum sold 50% of Bakki Holdco to Kenbe Investments, the vehicle of former Ugandan attorney-general William Byaruhanga, for KSh 1.032 billion.
- •The first exit attempt came in June 2022, when Centum signed a binding agreement to sell its full 83.43% stake to Nigeria's Access Bank for KSh 4.3 billion, against a total entry cost of approximately KSh 4.7 billion.
The exit caps a divestiture that became one of Kenya's most drawn-out corporate separations. Centum first entered K-Rep Bank in 2004, building its position over a decade to reach a controlling 83.43% stake held through Bakki Holdco. The bank was rebranded Sidian in April 2016, a process that cost KSh 500 million.
The Access deal collapsed in January 2023 after conditions precedent expired without agreement. The failure carried a direct cost: Sidian was forced to pay KSh 444 million to Danish development financier IFU to settle a conversion right triggered by the attempted sale, a charge that pushed the bank into losses.
With that route closed, Centum shifted to piecemeal divestiture. In October 2023, a consortium comprising Pioneer General Insurance, Wizpro Enterprises, and Afram Limited acquired 38.91% of Sidian, reducing Centum's holding to 44.52% and ending Sidian's status as a Centum subsidiary. Confirmed proceeds from that first round totalled approximately KSh 1.98 billion. Further sales in late 2023 and 2024 reduced the stake incrementally, with Centum confirming total proceeds of KSh 3.2 billion from the initial 64% sold.
Subsequent rights issues at Sidian, which neither Centum nor Byaruhanga participated in, diluted Bakki's combined holding from 40% to 27.27%.
The Deal
Under Centum's stewardship, Sidian's balance sheet grew from 19 billion shillings in 2012 to 94.8 billion shillings by September 2025, a five-fold expansion. The bank crossed into mid-tier status in September 2025 after the CBK formally reclassified it as a medium-sized lender. Profit after tax for the nine months to that date was KSh 1.4 billion, compared with a record full-year 486 million shillings in 2021, though much of the recent profit surge was driven by government securities income rather than lending.
Adding the Kenbe proceeds and the final March 2026 exit, total recoveries from Sidian now stand at approximately KSh 5.2 billion in confirmed and estimated cash, against a total investment of KSh 4.7 billion. The return is modest in nominal terms and likely negative in real terms across 22 years, though Centum also received dividends and shareholder loan repayments from the bank during the holding period.
Its most recent annual report valued the Bakki stake at approximately KSh 1.0 billion, up from KSh 900 million the year before but the clear financial effect will be clear in the results for the year ending 31 March 2026.
The transaction has received regulatory clearance from both the Central Bank of Kenya and the Competition Authority of Kenya.
