Time flies with great content! Renew in to keep enjoying all our premium content.
Prime
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro at his offices in Nairobi on October 26, 2026.
By George Ngigi
Correspondent
Nation Media Group
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro has acquired a 9.76 percent stake in Olympia Capital Holding as he eyes an additional stake to turn the Nairobi bourse-listed investment into a vehicle that will buy stakes across sectors.
Mr Nyoro bought 3,982,253 shares through his company, Limpopo Capital Limited, currently worth Sh29.8 million, making him the third largest shareholder in the investment company.
The lawmaker wants to increase his holding to 25 percent, a threshold that will allow him to declare intentions to take over the firm, which was initially majority-owned by the family of former Mathira MP Matu Wamae.
Olympia Capital, formerly Dunlop Kenya, is a holding company for six firms operating in Kenya, Botswana and South Africa.
The group’s subsidiaries manufacture and sell products used in the construction industry, cleaning chemicals, water pumps and fire prevention equipment. It also has interests in real estate.
Mr Nyoro intends to model Olympia Capital into an investment fund that will fully acquire other businesses or invest in high-quality stocks to generate steady cash flow and dividends.
But he will need to amass shares equivalent to a quarter of the firm and possibly push for its buyout to easily implement the shift in its core business model.
Mr Nyoro reckons he will sell the 9.76 percent stake for a profit if the bid to raise his stake and get control of the firm fails.
“I started buying OCH in 2025. I thought I’d get enough supply to at least 25 percent, but liquidity of the share is low. What I need to do with it can only happen when we have a higher shareholding. If it’s difficult, then we’ll exit,” said Mr Nyoro, in response to Business Daily queries regarding the investment.
“The plan is to transform the company into some kind of Berkshire Hathaway – an investment Company.”
Berkshire Hathaway is a massive US multinational conglomerate holding company that owns a diverse collection of businesses outright and holds major minority stakes in publicly traded stocks. The US firm is majority owned by tycoon Warren Buffett.
Olympia Capital’s profits dropped to Sh10.45 million last year from Sh10.45 million, reflecting a drop of 40.9 percent.
The investment company has not paid dividends in the last five years.
Olympia Capital owns glue producer Dunlex Adhesives and a 46 percent shareholding in rubber company Avon, which also has real estate holdings.
In Botswana, the company is involved in the construction sector through production of tiles, real estate holdings and manufacturing of cleaning chemicals, while in South Africa it is in the logistics business.
“I visited their factory in Gaborone, Botswana and thought it was scalable, especially via the South Africa market,” disclosed Mr Nyoro.
“Though the company hasn’t paid dividends for a long time, its assets per share are not bad,” noted Mr Nyoro.
Management of the investment company disclosed that it had held back expansion plans in the last three years as it worked on internal restructuring, including revamping the boards of its subsidiaries.
“We could not responsibly scale manufacturing when our cost of production was running at levels that made expansion unviable,” the company said in its 2026 annual report released early this month.
“Through better supplier agreements and securing a more consistent supply chain, we have materially improved our manufacturing cost structure, and we are now confident we can grow manufacturing significantly.”
UK-based Dunlop Properties Limited is the largest shareholder of Olympia Capital with a 6.2 percent shareholding.
Other top shareholders include Paul Wanderi Ndung’u, renowned for his investment in SportPesa and the telecom industry, who has a 12 percent stake in the investment company.
A company associated with Mr Ndung’u, Mobicom Kenya Limited, is also among the top owners at Olympia with a 1.12 percent stake.
Billionaire businessman Joel Kibe, prominent for his investment in CMC, has a two percent stake in the company.
Regulatory filings indicate Asteria Company, which had a three percent stake, as the only large shareholder to have exited the list of top owners in the last 12 months, indicating Mr Nyoro accumulated his stake through purchases in the open market.
Analysts reckon Mr Nyoro’s investment is speculative given the positive outlook of the company, given its investment in strategic sectors such as real estate, hospitality and logistics.
“This is a speculative buy. On the asset side, it is discounted, but the earnings are not so good,” said Shadrack Manyinsa, senior research analyst at Pergamon Investment Bank.
“Their profits are coming down, but if they had a strategic investment to grow their capability to mint their assets, then their performance would improve,” he added.
Mr Nyoro, formerly a stockbroker before going into politics, has been an active trader on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) with a preference for picking small-cap counters and betting on an upswing.
At Kenya Power, the MP invested an estimated Sh56 million in 2023 to buy 32.5 million shares at an average of Sh1.58 per share, becoming the utility firm’s largest individual shareholder.
His stake in the power firm is currently valued at Sh468.7 million, with the counter trading at Sh21.8 per share despite the MP having sold a portion of his shares, which booked him huge capital gains.
Earlier this year, Mr Nyoro bought into Kenya Airways with a Sh49.2 million investment, which made him the second largest individual shareholder in the listed airline. The loss-making airline has since secured an additional Sh45.4 billion in financial support from the National Treasury to help meet its financial obligations.
KQ share price has gained 18 percent to Sh5.62 per share since Mr Nyoro’s investment was disclosed
Olympia is now trading at Sh7.46 a share after opening trading last year at Sh2.80.
[email protected]
Follow our WhatsApp channel for the latest business and markets updates.
Don’t have an account? Register
If you have an Ad-blocker please disable it and reload the page or try again later.
About the Author
