Mauritian Ah Chuen family earns $3.86 million from ABC Banking Corp in 149 days (2023)

The Mauritius-based Ah-Chuen family has earned MUR163.49 million ($3.86 million) from ABC Banking Corporation in about 149 days.

The $3.86-million gain accrued from the Ah Chuen family’s stake in the Mauritius-based bank came off the back of a double-digit rise in the bank’s share price on the Mauritian bourse.

In recent times, the bank’s shares increased from MUR15 ($0.3536) reported on March 17 to MUR16.50 ($0.3889) as of press time, 6:00 PM (UTC), Aug. 13.

This translates to a gain of 10 percent for shareholders in the past 149 days.

According to research conducted by Billionaires.Africa, the market value of the family’s 14.29-percent ownership interest in ABC Banking Corporation increased from MUR1.634 billion ($38.54 million) to MUR1.798 billion ($42.40 million) between March 17 and Aug. 13.

This led to a gain of MUR163.49 million ($3.86 million) for the Mauritian family in 149 days.

Like the Lagasse family, the Ah Chuen family played a critical role in developing Mauritius through the establishment of ABC Group by Jean Etienne Moilin Ah Chuen in 1931.

Moilin Ah Chuen grew the ABC brand name, “Au Bazar Central” (At the Central Market), from a store at Port Louis in 1931, and left his children a blueprint for leading the group.

Since 1931, the store has evolved into a leading group that currently holds key investments in the financial services and automotive industries through its subsidiaries.

ABC Banking Corporation, which forms part of the ABC Group, is a licensed bank in Mauritius that offers a comprehensive range of traditional and innovative products and services that cover deposits, lending, trade-finance, cards, leasing and treasury products.

The Ah Chuen family holds a 14.29-percent ownership interest in the bank, which is valued at MUR1.798 billion ($42.40 million).

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In the world of African entrepreneurship, few stories are as inspiring as that of Paul Kimani, CEO and co-founder of Workpay.

Kimani’s startup, a cloud-based HR and payroll solution for SMBs in Africa, has been making waves in recent years, thanks in no small part to his vision and tenacity.

A serial entrepreneur and graduate of the University of Nairobi in Kenya, Kimani, who today ranks as one of Kenya’s top-performing entrepreneurs, has spent his career building businesses and chasing the African dream.

Prior to founding Workpay, Kimani worked with Equity Bank, East Africa’s largest bank by assets and capital, and founded two successful tech companies.

However, it is with Workpay that Kimani has truly hit his stride. Under his leadership, the company has doubled its revenue every year since 2021 and now serves nearly 700 companies, processing more than $200 million in payroll annually. And with the $2.7 million that it recently secured from its pre-Series-A funding round, Kimani and his team are poised for even greater growth.

Workpay prepares to roll out its services to 40 countries on the continent

The $2.7 million in funding that Workpay recently secured from investors in its pre-Series-A funding round will be used to expand its HR, payroll, compliance, and benefits tools across Africa, with the goal of rolling out its services to 40 countries on the continent. This comes on the heels of a successful seed funding round in 2021 that raised $2.1 million.

But for Kimani, it’s not just about the numbers. The startup is his passion project, and he sees it as a way to make a real difference in the lives of African business owners and their employees. As he puts it, “My goal is to make small businesses run in an efficient and effective way.”

And he’s not just paying lip service to that goal. Workpay’s cloud-based platform has already helped over 600 businesses in more than 20 countries streamline their HR and payroll operations. And as remote work becomes increasingly common, the company has added new product lines to meet the changing needs of its customers.

Success for Paul Kimani means paving the way for the next generation of African entrepreneurs.

Kimani’s journey with Workpay is a testament to what African entrepreneurs can achieve with the right combination of vision, grit, and support. He has participated in prestigious fellowship programs like Y Combinator and the eFounders Fellowship, building valuable connections and insights along the way.

However, for Kimani, it’s not just about his own success. It’s about paving the way for the next generation of African entrepreneurs. As he told Forbes: “Africa is not the continent of the future but the continent of now.” And with leaders like Kimani at the helm, the future looks brighter than ever.

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Following a $2.3-million increase in the market value of his stake in Equity Group Holdings in the first 12 days of 2023, Kenyan multimillionaire banker James Mwangi has seen the market value of his stake in the Nairobi-based lender fall by more than $3.8 million.

According to data tracked by Billionaires.Africa, Mwangi, one of Kenya’s wealthiest investors and businessmen, has seen the market value of his equity stake in Equity Group Holdings decrease by Ksh498.5 million ($3.84 million) in the past 60 days.

Equity Group Holdings is a leading financial services conglomerate headquartered in Nairobi, the capital and largest city of Kenya. In addition to its Kenyan operations, it has subsidiaries in Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mwangi, who has been instrumental in the growth and transformation of Kenya’s financial services industry, owns a significant 3.38-percent stake in Equity Group, or 127,809,180 shares.

The market value of his stake in the leading lender has fallen by Ksh498.5 million ($3.84 million) since Jan. 16, exactly 60 days ago, from Ksh5.99 billion ($46.23 million) to Ksh5.49 billion ($42.38 million). This is due to the bank’s share price falling 8.3 percent from Ksh46.9 ($0.362) to Ksh43 ($0.332).

The recent drop in Mwangi’s stake has pared his earlier gains this year to a loss of nearly $1.5 million, as investors on the Nairobi Securities Exchange remain cautious of their equity positions in the face of recent macroeconomic headwinds in the economy, which continue to impact company financial performance.

James Mwangi’s Equity Group to receive $4.1 million for taking over Spire Bank

Equity Group is poised to receive millions of dollars as a result of Mwalimu Sacco’s acquisition of financially distressed Spire Bank. In the deal, Mwalimu Sacco agreed to pay Equity Ksh510 million ($4.1 million), representing the difference between the bank’s assets and liabilities.

Unfortunately, this indicates that Spire Bank has no value, resulting in significant losses for the teachers who purchased a majority stake in 2014.

The acquisition of Spire Bank presents both challenges and opportunities for Equity Group, which, under the leadership of Mwangi, reported profits exceeding $280 million in the first nine months of 2022.

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Centum Investment, Kenya’s largest listed investment firm owned partly by Robert Kirubi and Mary-Ann Musangi, heirs to the late Kenyan tycoon Chris Kirubi’s multimillion-dollar business empire, has settled a Ksh2.3-billion ($17.8 million) debt using internally generated cash.

The move follows an unsuccessful attempt to secure funding by selling its 83.4-percent stake in Sidian Bank to Access Bank, a leading Nigerian financial institution controlled by Herbert Wigwe, a wealthy banker and businessman.

Centum CEO James Mworia revealed that the $17.8-million debt was repaid using internally generated funds sourced from land sales and loan repayments made by the company’s subsidiaries.

“We retired the debt using alternative sources. We used proceeds from land sales by our portfolio companies and subsequent repayment of shareholder loans to Centum,” Mworia said.

He also noted that the company is still searching for a buyer for its 83.4-percent stake in Sidian Bank, whose growth was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of interest rate controls in September 2016.

Centum Investment is Kenya’s largest publicly traded investment firm. \The East African-focused firm invests in real estate and private equity assets in the consumer goods, financial, agribusiness, and power sectors.

Chris Kirubi, a leading Kenyan tycoon and serial investor who passed away in 2021 at the age of 80, owned a significant 31-percent stake in Centum Investments, which is now held by his son, Robert Kirubi, and daughter, Mary-Ann Musangi, who inherited 80 percent of his fortune, including stakes in KCB Group, Haco Industries, Bendor Estate Limited, and other businesses.

Despite Centum’s persistent efforts to restructure its balance sheets and minimize interest payments on its debt, the company’s financial performance has yet to recover since the passing of Kirubi.

Due to declining revenues and increasing finance costs, the company recorded a net loss of Ksh1.55 billion ($12.6 million) at the end of the first half of its 2023 fiscal year, with the primary contributor being unrealized foreign exchange losses.

In March of last year, Centum’s borrowings were Ksh4.1 billion ($31.8 million), a significant decrease from Ksh16.2 billion ($125.8 million) in March 2019. It now aims to eliminate all parent company-level debt by March 2024 and has proactively begun repaying its dollar-denominated loans to minimize the impact of weak Kenya shilling on its earnings.

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