Jimnah Mbaru sells 50 million Britam shares to Swiss Re

Dyer & Blair chairman Jimnah Mbaru has sold 50 million shares in Britam to Switzerland’s major reinsurance company Swiss Re through a private transaction. Although the parties did not disclose the value of the transaction, the shares have a market value of KSh425 million going by Britam’s closing price at the NSE on 17th April 2019.

Swiss Re now owns 15.79 percent of Britam, making it the firm’s third-largest investor after Equity Holdings and PE firm AfricInvest.

In the past two years, Britam has experienced major changes in its ownership structure after some of its largest investors sold their stakes to foreign institutional investors. In 2018, Britam’s director Peter Munga sold 348.5 million shares to the Zurich based reinsurer Swiss Re. In the previous year, the director had disposed 104 million shares of Britam to an undisclosed buyer. Mr. Munga acquired the 452.5 million shares in 2016 from the Mauritius government which seized them from convicted businessman and Mauritanian national Dawood Rawat.

In 2017, Mr. Mbaru reduced his stake in the insurance company to 10 percent after he traded 5.5 million shares valued at KSh56.6 million at the time of the transaction. The businessman has significantly reduced his ownership in Britam since it was listed in 2011. In December 2017, Mr. Mbaru owned 164.8 million Britam shares compared to the 300 million shares he held at the time of listing.