This archive report was first published on 27 September 2019.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has extended the suspension of trading of ARM Cement's shares for a further nine months, until May 2020.
This is the fifth extension of the trading suspension, which was first imposed in August 2018, and has now lasted for over 21 months.
ARM Cement owes billions of shillings to a range of creditors, including local commercial banks, and the company has been under the joint administrators George Weru and Muniu Thoithi of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) since August last year.
The administrators are still trying to find buyers who can revive the company, but so far, no deal has been concluded.
Devki Group billionaire Narendra Raval had seemed set to acquire the assets of the cement firm for Ksh5 billion in May this year, but the deal was placed in doubt by a last-minute bid by Jaswant Rai and objections by former ARM chief executive and major shareholder Pradeep Paunrana.
Paunrana's attempt to purchase the fertilizer unit of ARM Cement also fell through after administrators cancelled a bid that would have seen Swiss firm Omya and Pinner Heights Limited purchase the unit.
ARM Cement's creditors include Stanbic Bank Kenya, African Finance Corporation, and overdrafts with Barclays, Stanbic, Guaranty Trust, and UBA banks.
The company's Tanzanian subsidiary, Maweni, had loans with Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (PTA Bank), and Development Bank of South Africa, and overdrafts with Stanbic and Standard Bank (Mauritius).
Maweni was sold to Chinese firm Huaxin Cement for Ksh12 billion in a bidding war that edged out other potential buyers.
