Kirubi heirs lead shareholders as Centum declares Sh521m dividend

Billionaire heirs of the late industrialist Chris Kirubi and other major shareholders are heading for a bumper payday after Centum Investment Company declared a record Sh521 million dividend, The Standard reports.

Centum has spent recent years reshaping its portfolio — monetising assets, cleaning up the balance sheet and trying to restore investor confidence after a stretch of muted returns. A headline dividend of this size is meant to signal that cash generation is back on the agenda.

Large listed investment companies in Nairobi are watched closely because their payouts often move unit-trust flows and retail sentiment on the bourse. When a name associated with Chris Kirubi’s estate leads the register, the story also carries a succession angle: how family offices manage concentrated equity stakes across cycles.

Investors will still look past the single cheque. Key questions include whether the dividend is covered by recurring cash rather than one-off disposals, how much dry powder remains for new deals, and whether Net Asset Value growth can keep pace with peer African investment holding companies.

For ordinary shareholders, the practical steps are routine: confirm CDS accounts, watch the books-closure and payment dates in the official notice, and treat social-media “dividend calculators” as unofficial until the registrar publishes final per-share figures.

ZaKenya will update this story when Centum releases the detailed circular with per-share amounts and payment timeline.

Sources: The Standard — Business. This report paraphrases publicly available reporting; it does not republish third-party full text.