Nairobi Securities Exchange listed reinsurance firm Kenya Re has bought Cooperative Bank shares worth Sh. 261.4 million.
The shares, amounting to 15.3 million, saw the re-insurer join the list of Co-op Bank’s top shareholders.
“It was not a single transaction. We have been accumulating Co-op Bank shares just like our other equity investments,” the chief executive officer at Kenya Re, Jadiah Mwarania, told a local daily.
The acquisition comes hot on the heels of some top investors and businessmen’ acquisition of more Co-op Bank shares.
For instance, NSE billionaire investor Baloobhai Patel has recently acquired a 0.22 per cent stake in the lender with a current market value of Sh.183 million.
In the same vein, Tanzanian billionaires Aunali and Sajjad Rajabali also recently bought a 0.47 per cent stake in Co-op Bank worth Sh. 391 million.
According to financial analyst Edwin Okumu, these acquisitions are part of strategic share acquisition in a stock that is currently positioned as a worthy but undervalued bet. “Co-op bank has been on a growth trajectory both in assets and profitability. It is currently an undervalued banking counter on the NSE,” he says. “The move to acquire its shares on the cheap will highly reward investors in the medium to long term, especially if the NSE maintains its current recovery momentum.”
The lender recently closed its books for a Sh. 0.8 per share dividend and will on June 30 register shareholders who will be eligible for a bonus of one share for every five held.
