Kenya: Helios Exits Telkom Kenya After Offloading 60% Stake

British Investment firm, Helios Investment Partners, has offloaded its 60 per cent stake in Telkom Kenya, making the company a fully owned state parastatal.

The Kenyan government which previously owned a 40 per cent stake in Telkom now owns the company fully.

The exit comes six years after Jamhuri acquired majority ownership in the integrated telecommunications solutions provider from France Telecom in June 2016, through its local subsidiary Orange.

Capital FM has reliably established that Jamhuri Holdings Limited notified the government of its intention to exit Telkom in August 2021.

The collapse of the proposed merger between Telkom and Airtel Kenya following disapproval of the transaction by the government may have accelerated the exit.

Exits are a common practice by private equity firms upon successful execution of value creation initiatives.

In 2015, Helios exited Equity Bank Group with the sale of its final stake to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Uganda, following exits to Norwegian investment fund, Norfund and UK investment management firm, Genesis Investment Management LLP.

More recently, Helios exited its investment in Vivo Energy to Vitol Group following an earlier partial exit through a public listing on the London Stock Exchange.

Helios’ current investments are spread across several firms and countries in East Africa in Financial Services, technology, infrastructure, Healthcare, Energy, and customer sectors.