Kestrel’s Next Chapter: Management Buyout Sets Up a Bigger Play in Kenya’s Bull Market
- Derry Thornalley
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
When the deal finally closed in October, it marked more than the end of a 30-year era. It was the moment Kestrel Capital – one of Kenya’s most recognisable investment managers and stockbrokers – formally moved from founder ownership to executive control, just as Nairobi’s capital markets are roaring back to life.
Mwangi and Ruenji, have fired the starting gun and the new owners have taken over at a rare inflection point: a transformed balance of clients, a turbocharged bonds market, and an equity rally that has pushed investor wealth on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) up by more than a trillion shillings in 2025.
From founder era to Theo Capital
Ruenji, a seasoned investment broker, framed the buyout as a deliberate bet on the future of Kenyan capital markets. “This is more than an acquisition. It’s the start of Kestrel’s bold future. Our task is to preserve the foundation while adding accessibility and global connectivity innovation,” he said at the announcement.
Behind those words lies a hard truth. Kestrel’s brokerage commissions fell from KSh 529 million in 2015 to about KSh 165 million in 2024, dropping it from top broker to around 10th out of 22 as a decade-long bear market and a shift in flows took their toll.
“The mainstay has been predominantly foreign institutional investors. Activity has shifted towards local institutional and retail investors and Kestrel has ceded its market share to others,” Mwangi acknowledged.
A bull market arrives right on cue
If the timing of the buyout looks bold, it is also undeniably strategic.
The NSE is in the middle of its strongest run in a decade. Investor wealth has risen by an estimated KSh 1.04 trillion in 2025, with blue-chip counters such as Safaricom, Equity Group and KCB driving index gains of more than 50 percent year-to-date.
Even more dramatic is the resurgence in bonds. The NSE secondary bond market has already seen turnover of KSh 1.39 trillion in the first half of 2025, up from KSh 781.8 billion a year earlier, putting it on course to clear KSh 2.6 trillion if current trends hold. That surge delivered a 156 percent jump in brokers’ and investment banks’ net profits to around KSh 1.1 billion in the six months to June, as fixed-income commissions piled up.
Kestrel’s own revenue mix has shifted accordingly. Management says brokerage now accounts for roughly 70% of income, down from 85% a decade ago, as corporate advisory and investment banking have grown in importance. That diversification gives Mwangi and his team more levers to pull as they chase new growth.
Dry Associates currently leads the brokerage league tables, followed by Standard Investment Bank, Faida Investment Bank, Capital A, AIB-AXYS and NCBA – a ranking Kestrel’s new owners have no intention of watching from the sidelines for long.
A new structure, new offices, and a new target list
The formal completion of the management buyout has been matched by a physical reset. Kestrel has moved into new, modern offices in Nairobi, with contemporary design, collaborative spaces and updated trading infrastructure – a deliberate signal that the firm intends to operate, and feel, like a next-generation investment house, not a legacy broker.
Internally, the message is that the firm is “open for the next 30 years”: a refreshed shareholder base deeply embedded in the business, a leadership team with skin in the game, and a mandate to climb back toward the top bracket of Kenyan asset-management and brokerage rankings.
Strategically, Mwangi has outlined three immediate priorities:
Reclaiming domestic market share among local institutional investors – pension funds, insurers and asset managers – who increasingly drive NSE flows;
Building a meaningful retail franchise, using technology to reach younger and more digitally native investors;
Deepening corporate advisory, leveraging Kestrel’s research heritage and deal track record to advise companies on capital raising, M&A and restructurings.
Kestrel’s long-standing research capability, its reputation among foreign institutions and its brand recognition give it a stronger starting point than most.
How Veri fits into Kestrel’s global push
Against this backdrop, the link between Kestrel and Veri Platform is straightforward.
In meetings with Eric Ruenji and Francis Mwangi, Verī’s leadership has seen a management team that is not just defending a legacy franchise, but actively re-architecting it for global connectivity. The logic is clear:
Kenyan investors – from institutions to affluent individuals – increasingly want access to both NSE opportunities and global markets within a regulated, integrated framework.
Regulators and risk teams need clear line-of-sight across all those exposures: local equities, government bonds, corporate paper, and offshore funds or securities.
Brokers and investment banks like Kestrel must differentiate themselves by offering seamless, compliant access rather than isolated product silos.
Veri Platform is designed to sit behind firms like Kestrel and provide:
A single technology layer through which Kestrel can access and administer multi-asset, multi-market portfoliosfor its clients – from NSE blue chips and Kenyan infrastructure bonds to regional African funds and global ETFs;
Integration with multiple custodians and venues, feeding into a daily reconciled ledger at client and portfolio level;
Regulator-friendly reporting, giving the Capital Markets Authority and other supervisors transparent, consolidated insight into currency, issuer and duration risks.
As Kestrel pushes into 2026 with a new ownership structure, new offices and an explicit ambition to .climbing back towards the summit of Kenya’s brokerages ranking, Verī looks forward to being part of the global access layer that supports that journey.
Catching the perfect sunrise is all about timing - hesitate for too long and the moment slips away.
Acquiring Kestrel Capital by Theo Capital Holdings was our sunrise moment. We moved at the right time, just as the NSE recorded its strongest run in years, seizing an opportunity that rewards those who act with clarity, courage, and conviction.
Our vision now is simple: technology-driven market growth. Theo Capital’s mission is to unlock a new era of investment access in Kenya. By empowering Kestrel with modern infrastructure and a wider product set, we aim to bring more Kenyans into the formal investment ecosystem - giving both institutions and retail investors a platform that truly matches their ambitions.”
Eric Ruenji, Chairman, Theo Capital Holdings
A pioneer resets for the next cycle
There is symbolism in the timing. Kestrel Capital, founded in 1994 and credited with pioneering modern research and execution standards on the NSE, is marking its 30th anniversary not with a quiet commemorative dinner, but with the most fundamental governance change in its history.
The management buyout via Theo Capital Holdings closes the founder chapter and opens a new one where the people running the firm own it – and are directly accountable for whether it rises again to the top tier or remains a mid-table name in a booming market.
With a bull market in full swing, record bond turnover, a rejuvenated equity story and a fresh balance sheet of ideas at Theo Capital, the next few years will determine which way the story goes.
For now, the signal is clear: Kestrel means business again.
#Kenya #NSE #KestrelCapital #TheoCapital #AfricanMarkets #Stockbrokers #FixedIncome #Equities #VeriPlatform
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