Real estate firm Sameer Africa has attributed the delayed completion of the sale of a 3.75-acre parcel of land, first earmarked for disposal four years ago, to financial challenges facing the buyer.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm put the land, valued at Sh919 million, up for sale in 2022 after disclosing that it had secured a buyer. However, the company has continued to classify the transaction as ongoing in subsequent annual reports, setting multiple completion timelines that have lapsed without the deal being finalised.
The company has now set the end of this month as the completion date, marking the fourth self-imposed deadline. The firm’s tyre manufacturing and distribution business collapsed, leaving real estate as its main source of revenue.
Sameer disclosed that it is charging interest on the outstanding balance owed by the buyer. The delay has also denied the company foreign exchange gains associated with the dollar-denominated transaction.
“The agreement for sale was mutually extended with appropriate compensation through interest to be levied on the balance of the consideration,” said John Mugo, Sameer Africa’s chief executive.
Buyer challenges
The company has received cumulative deposits of Sh461 million from the buyer, indicating that it has already received about half of the expected proceeds from the transaction.
Sameer said it denominated the transaction in US dollars because a majority of its revenues are earned in the currency. However, the strengthening and stabilisation of the shilling against the dollar has reduced the value of the land in local currency terms.
The transaction, valued at $7.12 million, was worth Sh1.1 billion in 2023 when the shilling weakened to Sh157.4 against the dollar. That valuation was Sh181 million higher than the current value.
Sameer had earmarked the land sale to repay loans and reduce financing costs. Its finance costs fell to Sh3.2 million in 2025 from Sh130.3 million in 2024 after it repaid loans worth Sh540.6 million using proceeds from the land sale deposit.
Forex impact
Sameer had initially attributed the delay in completing the transaction to administrative bottlenecks at the government land registry arising from the migration of title documents to the digitised National Land Information Management System (Ardhisasa).
The company sits on substantial land holdings acquired decades ago that have appreciated significantly in value over time. Despite this, it has generally been reluctant to dispose of the assets. The ongoing transaction will be its first major land sale in recent years.
The company does not disclose the size of its freehold land holdings. However, sources have previously estimated that it owns about 85 acres in Nairobi’s Embakasi area, with its properties carried at a fair value of Sh8.9 billion.
The value of the properties is more than double the company’s market capitalisation of Sh4.08 billion at the close of trading on Thursday, when its share price settled at Sh14.65. The stock has more than quadrupled in value over the past year.
