The Quickmart Initial Public Offer (IPO) opened yesterday with a price of Sh7.50 per share, targeting Sh15 billion from the sale of two billion shares by the retailer’s founders and private equity fund Adenia Partners.
The minimum subscription for the offer has been set at 500 shares, equivalent to Sh3,750. Incremental applications will be in multiples of 100 shares, without a limit on the maximum shares one can purchase.
Quickmart said in its information memorandum on the offer that the success of the IPO is conditional on achieving a 75 per cent subscription rate, equivalent to 1.5 billion shares being taken up by investors.
However, the sellers reserve the right to waive this requirement prior to the allotment date, with the approval of the Capital Markets Authority (CMA).
The company will enter the market at an overall valuation of Sh30 billion based on the offer price and the company’s four billion total issued shares. The IPO sale period runs until October 30, with a tentative listing date of November 12.
“The opening of the offer marks an important milestone in Quickmart’s journey. Over the past two decades, we have expanded our national footprint, strengthened our operating platform and continued to invest in our stores, our people and our technology, while remaining focused on what our customers value most: price, convenience and freshness,” said Quickmart Chief Executive Officer Peter Kang’iri in a statement.
The offer shares are wholly held through an investment vehicle known as Sokoni Retail Kenya Limited, which was created following the merger of Quickmart and Tumaini supermarkets in 2019 after Adenia acquired majority stakes in each of the two retailers.
Quickmart Managing Director and CEO Peter Kang’iri at the retailer’s headquarters in Nairobi on October 28, 2025.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
Adenia holds a 50.8 per cent stake in Sokoni, the family of Quickmart founder the late John Kinuthia 32 per cent, Tumaini founders 12 per cent and Mr Kang’iri 5.4 per cent. Each of the four core owners has committed to sell half of their holdings, meaning that Adenia will remain the anchor shareholder of the supermarket post-IPO.
Kenyan institutional investors have been allocated 35 per cent of the IPO shares, followed by local retail and offering investors at 20 per cent each. East African Community investors have an allocation of 12 per cent. These limits can however be adjusted depending on subscription levels per investor category.
This is the second IPO at the Nairobi bourse this year following the government’s Sh106 billion sale of a 65 per cent stake in Kenya Pipeline Company in March. Family Bank Limited also listed at the bourse in June, but via introduction rather than a public offer.
This has widened investors’ choice in a market where five counters—Safaricom, Equity Bank, KCB, East African Breweries Limited and Cooperative Bank—dominated trading, masking the overall performance of the bourse.
Quickmart will now become the second listed retailer at the bourse, joining the struggling Uchumi Supermarket which went public in 1992.
For the founders and Adenia, the IPO offers a chance to cash in on part of their stock at a time when the retailer is making higher profits and expanding aggressively in the local market.
Quickmart is now the second largest retail chain in Kenya behind Naivas by store count and turnover, with an estimated 15 per cent 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 per cent growth in net profit to Sh1.51 billion. Sales rose by 9.3 percent to Sh50.43 billion in the year. The retailer paid its shareholders a dividend of Sh1.65 billion, representing a payout ratio of 109 per cent.
Quickmart says that it will maintain a policy of paying at least 80 per cent of its net profit as dividends to investors post-listing, joining a select list of firms that distribute more than three-quarters of net earnings to their owners.
