Boon for Ruto’s friend Anthony Mwaura, one of the biggest investors in HF Group owning Sh1.6billion stake
Anthony Mwaura, a Thika-based businessman in Kiambu county and Chairman Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) who also doubles as the chairman of the ruling party’s UDA National Elections Board is now the second largest investor of the state owned Housing Finance (HF) Group following a recent shares rights issue.
Also one of the President William Ruto’s closest political allies, Mwaura and his family bought shares last year with the Group which are currently valued Sh1.6 billion, making him among the top ranking Kenyans to own the financial institution.
The civil engineer had some time in the same year been moved from the all-powerful post as the chairman of the lucrative Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and recently moved to the lackluster KeRRA.
Mwaura who is also the United Democratic Alliance Party Elections Board chairman, his wife Rose Njeri and daughter Susan Wanjiru bought a combined 12.72 per cent of HF shares, making the family the second biggest shareholders after Britam Holdings which has 48.17 per cent ownership of the HF Group.
He bought 81.6 million shares of the bank in last year’s rights issue representing 4.33 per cent and currently valued Sh548 while the wife’s stake is at 4.21 per cent worth Sh533.5million while his daughter bagged 4.18 per cent shares currently valued at Sh528million.
Mwaura purchased his shares through his Toddy Civil Engineering firm while his wife and daughter similarly acquired their stakes through two privately owned entities.
Besides reportedly termed his investment in HF as “a retirement plan’, Mwaura maintained that the bank is a good indigenous entity with huge potential.
The housing mortgage firm raised a total of Sh6.4 billion in the rights issue which was oversubscribed by 38 percent of prospective investors.
Currently, HF Group is rated as the best performing banking institution at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) market at 64.3 per cent ahead of Cooperative Bank (24.1 per cent), Absa Bank (22.7 per cent) and Stanbic (20.7 per cent).
However, over a period of five years, the firm’s profits after tax fluctuated in a nosedive, ranging from a high of Sh1.7 billion in 2020 to a paltry Sh265 million in 2022 and a climb to Sh524million in 2024.
Efforts by The Informer Media Group to reach the HF Group CEO Robert Kibaara to give an insight into the bank’s projected investment plans following the financial windfall bore no fruits as he did not respond to phone calls and messages.
One of the areas that the bank is most likely to invest in is the government affordable housing scheme whose returns are said to be reasonably high.
In the past Kibaara had indicated that the successful rights issue had enhanced the bank’s capital rating, enabling it to attain sustainable growth and add value to its shareholders.
