(NAIROBI, KENYA) – A UK government investment arm has bought KES 1.94 billion ($15 million) of shares in Quickmart’s initial public offering, deepening its holdings in Kenya’s capital markets.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it will acquire a 6.5% stake in the retailer through MOBILIST, a UK government programme that uses public funds to buy stakes in private companies.
The deal marks MOBILIST’s third major investment in a firm linked to the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), as it seeks new listings to draw other high net worth investors to the offers.
The Quickmart transaction lifts MOBILIST’s investments in Kenya’s capital market to KES 5 billion ($38.4 million), about 75% of what it has invested in Africa so far.
MOBILIST is one of five investment vehicles of the FCDO, and it invests mainly in capital markets products to mobilise additional institutional capital in new listings.
Before Quickmart, MOBILIST had invested in Africa Logistics Properties’ industrial real estate investment trust (ALP Reit) and the Spearhead Africa Infrastructure Fund (SAIF).
It invested $24 million (KES 3.1 billion) alongside the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), also an FCDO vehicle, to support the listing of ALP Reit on the NSE.
The Reit raised about KES 5 billion ($38.4 million), giving investors access to income-generating warehouse and logistics assets.
In May, MOBILIST made a $9 million (KES 1.2 billion) anchor investment in SAIF, Kenya’s first unit trust infrastructure fund, which raised a total of KES 3.4 billion ($26.1 million).
The Quickmart deal is its third in Kenya this year.
“The investment builds on MOBILIST’s 2024 partnership with the NSE to expand the range of listed investment opportunities that drive development and enable greater capital markets participation by Kenyan institutions, including pension funds,” the retailer said in a statement.
MOBILIST’s investments are meant not only to support individual transactions but also to show that developing-market assets can attract investors through public markets.
It will join the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private investment arm, as a cornerstone investor in the KES 15 billion ($115 million) IPO, which has valued Quickmart at KES 30 billion ($230 million).
The IFC has also committed to buying a similar 6.5% stake for KES 1.94 billion ($15 million), boosting confidence in an IPO whose offer closes on 30th October.
For the IFC, this is not its first equity investment in a Kenyan retailer, having taken part in a consortium that bought and sold a 31.5% stake in Naivas between 2020 and 2022 for a healthy profit.
IFC and MOBILIST are hoping for a similar outsized return from Quickmart on exit, backed by the retailer’s expansion plans and steady dividend payouts.
Cornerstone investors are institutional or high net worth investors who agree in advance to buy a specific stake in an IPO, signalling 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 take part in the IPO.
In Quickmart’s IPO, current owners including Mauritius-registered private equity fund Adenia Partners, the founders of Quickmart and Tumaini supermarkets and the retailer’s chief executive officer Peter Kang’iri are offloading two billion shares, equal to a 50% stake.
Their shares are held through an investment vehicle known as Sokoni Retail Kenya Limited (SRKL).
The IPO could, however, bring in other large investors, given allocation rules that set aside 35% of the offer shares for Kenyan institutional investors, equal to an ultimate holding of 17.5% of the company’s issued shares.
Local retail and foreign investors have been allocated 20% each, East African Community investors 12%, and the IFC 13%. 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% share of the market. The company has 72 stores in 16 counties.
In the year ended December 2025, Quickmart reported a 33% growth in net profit to KES 1.51 billion ($11.6 million). Sales rose by 9.3% to KES 50.43 billion ($387 million) in the year.
The retailer paid its shareholders a dividend of KES 1.65 billion ($12.7 million), a payout ratio of 109%, and is aiming to distribute at least 80% of its earnings to shareholders in the coming years.