Standard Investment Bank Profit Soars 966% to KSh 1 Bn as Mansa X, Ziidi Drive Record Year

Mansa X Funds operator, Standard Investment Bank, ended FY2025 with profit of KSh 1.040 billion, up from KSh 97.50 million a year earlier, its sharpest single-year financial performance on record.

• •Total income reached KSh 2.188 billion, more than tripling from KSh 680.2 million in FY2024. Financial services revenue, the largest income line and the most direct proxy for Mansa X fee income, rose 202.5% to KSh 1.553 billion.
• •According to earlier disclosures, SIB charges a 5% management fee on Mansa X AUM, meaning the near-threefold revenue increase tracks the dramatic growth in fund assets across the four sub-funds during the year.
• •In January 2025, SIB co-launched the Ziidi Money Market Fund with Safaricom and ALA Capital, which now has net assets of KSh 15.48 billion, total investment income of KSh 1.005 billion, and a profit before distribution to unit holders of KSh 784.3 million.

"The era of abundant liquidity has given way to a structurally tighter environment," Nahashon Mungai, SIB's Executive Director of Global Markets, wrote in his fund manager commentary accompanying the results, framing the FY2025 performance not as a product of easy conditions but of deliberate active positioning across asset classes in a more demanding macro environment.

Brokerage commissions also contributed KSh 338.0 million, up 169.8%, while corporate finance income more than quintupled to KSh 55.76 million. Interest income rose sharply from KSh 20.80 million to KSh 214.4 million, likely reflecting the combined effect of a larger deployed balance sheet and SIB's November 2024 appointment as fund manager for the Taifa Pension Fund alongside CPF Financial Services, though the audited statements provide no line-by-line breakdown of the drivers.

Operating profit reached KSh 1.504 billion against KSh 265.1 million previously while operating expenses grew at a significantly slower pace than revenue, rising 25.61% to KSh 429.3 million, while finance costs fell 21.97% to KSh 27.10 million.

Total assets more than doubled to KSh 3.025 billion, shareholders' funds rose 91.34% to KSh 2.139 billion, and retained earnings expanded to KSh 1.579 billion from KSh 539.0 million. Excess liquid capital under CMA requirements stood at KSh 934.3 million, nearly three times the KSh 310.8 million of FY2024.

One balance sheet item without a public explanation is KES 822.8 million in shares in unquoted securities, which did not appear on the balance sheet at all in FY2024 and represents a material new equity position whose nature has not been disclosed.

The results were underpinned by strong performance across all four Mansa X sub-funds.

• •The Mansa X Special Fund KES, the largest by volume, closed the year with total assets of KSh 107.708 billion and delivered a full-year net return of 20.74% to clients, with net surplus attributable to clients of KSh 13.60 billion.
• •The Mansa X Special Fund USD, the largest by absolute AUM, reported total assets of USD 117.99 million (approximately KSh 15.27 billion at KSh 129.4 per USD), with net surplus to clients of USD 12.38 million, nearly four times the USD 3.127 million recorded in FY2024.
• •The two Shariah-compliant sub-funds under SIB Najah also accelerated sharply. The Mansa X Shariah Special Fund KES grew total assets to KSh 2.523 billion, while the USD equivalent closed at USD 4.016 million. Purification expenses across both Shariah funds grew faster than AUM during the year which indicates the portfolio held a higher proportion of instruments requiring Shariah income cleansing relative to the prior period.

Ziidi's portfolio was anchored in call deposits (KSh 7.481 billion) and deposits with financial institutions (KSh 4.507 billion), with the remainder spread across government securities, treasury bills, and corporate bonds.

ZIIDI MMF AUDITED FINANCIALS:

In February, SIB opened its first regional office in Mombasa. In December, the bank broke ground on SIB International Centre, a planned 32-floor headquarters in Westlands, Nairobi, representing a KSh 3 billion capital commitment announced in the same month the audited FY2025 results were being finalized.

Founded in 1995 by James Wangunyu, who remains Founder and Managing Director, SIB is privately held. The December groundbreaking captured the ambition underpinning the numbers.

"We are not simply breaking ground for a new building," Wangunyu said at the ceremony.

"We are laying the cornerstone for the next generation of excellence in Kenyan and African investment banking."

With shareholders' funds now at KSh 2.139 billion and total AUM across Mansa X exceeding KES 110 billion, the institution enters 2026 as one of the most capitalized indigenous investment banks in Kenya by any conventional measure.