The World Bank’s private investment arm is buying a 6.5 percent stake in Quickmart through the retailer’s initial public offering (IPO) for Sh1.94 billion ($15 million), making a return to the local retail sector four years after selling a minority stake in Naivas Limited.
Quickmart says it has secured the investment from the International Finance Corporation (IFC)-the World Bank’s private investment arm- as a cornerstone investor in the Sh15 billion IPO, which has valued Quickmart at Sh30 billion.
This new bet on the retail sector will see the IFC acquire 258.67 million shares in Quickmart, representing about 13 percent of the offer shares, and an ultimate stake of 6.5 percent in the company.
For the IFC, this is not the first equity investment in a Kenyan retailer, having participated in a consortium that bought and sold a 31.5 percent in Naivas between 2020 and 2022 for a tidy profit.
IFC is hoping for a similar outsized return from Quickmart upon its exit, on the back of the retailer’s expansion plans and steady dividend payouts.
The retailer paid its shareholders a dividend of Sh1.65 billion, representing a payout ratio of 109 percent and is aiming to distribute at least 80 percent of its earnings to shareholders in the coming years.
The IFC is making a similar investment of $90 million (Sh11.7 billion) in the ongoing Airtel Money IPO on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) that is targeting Sh90.5 billion, highlighting its appetite for backing large capital market issuances through minority equity stakes.
Airtel Money is the fintech arm of telecommunications firm Airtel Africa, which operates in 14 African countries including Kenya.
In Quickmart’s IPO, current owners who include Mauritius-registered private equity fund Adenia Partners founders of Quickmart and Tumaini supermarkets and the retailer’s chief executive officer Peter Kang’iri are offloading two billion shares, equivalent to a 50 percent stake.
Their shares are held through an investment vehicle known as Sokoni Retail Kenya Limited (SRKL).
‘As Adenia, we are committed to staying on board and supporting Quickmart management through its next phase, and look forward to welcoming on board our incoming new shareholders, with a special mention to IFC, who are our cornerstone investor,’ said Martha Osier, a partner at Adenia, during the formal launch of the IPO on Tuesday.
Cornerstone investors are institutional or high net worth investors who agree in advance to buy a specific stake in an IPO, signaling confidence in an offer to other buyers.
The IFC, however, said its participation in the sale is not an endorsement or recommendation to other investors to participate in the IPO.
The IFC’s decision to invest in the Quickmart IPO, pending approval by its board, is its first such commitment in recent public offers in Kenya dating back to the 2000s.
Other large institutional investments in Kenyan IPOs have come in after offers open, and not through pre-sale public commitments such as the one seen from the IFC.
Some large buyers have also opted to keep their investments secret through nominee accounts in banks and stockbrokers.
In Naivas, German fund DEG, the IFC and private equity firms Amethis and MCB Equity Fund bought the stake in Naivas for Sh6 billion in 2020 through the investment vehicle Amethis Retail Limited.
The cash injection gave the supermarket growth capital to fuel its aggressive expansion across the country, while also diluting the stake of the retailer’s founding family of the late businessman Peter Mukuha Kago from 100 percent to 68.5 percent.
In the transaction, the IFC invested $15 million, equivalent to Sh1.8 billion at the dollar exchange rate at the time, a commitment that is matched by its proposed investment in Quickmart shares.
The DEG-led group subsequently sold the stake for $119.68 million in June 2022 to another consortium that was led by Mauritian conglomerate IBL Group and French sovereign wealth fund Proparco-more than doubling their original investment from two years earlier.
DEG also participated in the second consortium, simultaneously exiting its initial investment in Naivas and re-entering the retailer’s shareholder list as part of the new ownership.
The IBL consortium further increased its Naivas stake to 51 percent by purchasing additional shares from the Mukuha family, which ended up with a minority 49 percent stake in the retailer.
Similarly, Quickmart’s founding family of the late businessman John Kinuthia was left with a minority stake when it sold a 51 percent stake in the business to Adenia in 2019.
The PE fund had earlier in 2018 acquired a 55 percent holding in Tumaini Supermarket from its founders Moses Nditika, Joram Njoga and Elijah Okello, before merging the two retailers in 2020 under the Quickmart brand.
Going into the listing, Adenia holds a 50.79 percent stake in SRKL, the Kinuthia family 31.83 percent, the Tumaini founders 12.02 percent and Mr Kang’iri 5.36 percent.
Presuming the offer is fully subscribed, Adenia’s stake will drop to 25.4 percent, with the stakes of the Quickmart and Tumaini founders falling to 15.9 percent and 6.01 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, Mr Kang’iri’s holding will halve to 2.68 percent.
This means that the IFC will go into the business as the third-biggest shareholder behind Adenia and the Kinuthia family after the offer.
The IPO could, however, usher in other large investors into the business, given the allocation criteria that sets aside 35 percent of the offer shares for Kenyan institutional investors, equivalent to an ultimate holding of 17.5 percent of the company’s issued shares.
Local retail and foreign investors have been allocated 20 percent each, East African Community investors 12 percent, and the IFC 13 percent. These limits can be adjusted depending on subscription levels per investor category.
Quickmart is now the second largest retail chain in Kenya behind Naivas by store count and turnover, with an estimated 15 percent share of the market. The company has a current store count of 72, in 16 counties.
In the year ended December 2025, Quickmart reported a 33 percent growth in net profit to Sh1.51 billion. Sales rose by 9.3 percent to Sh50.43 billion in the year.