Co-op Bank Employees Become Largest Shareholders After Acquiring Additional Sh1.77 Billion Stake
By Maurice Momanyi
Employees of Co-operative Bank of Kenya have emerged as the lender’s largest shareholders after increasing their stake in the bank through a deal currently valued at Sh1.77 billion.
Latest shareholder disclosures show that the staff-owned Co-op Bank Regulated Non-WDT Sacco acquired an additional 55 million shares, raising its effective ownership in the bank to 2.58 percent by the end of December 2025, up from 1.64 percent the previous year.
The acquisition pushed the employees’ sacco ahead of Harambee Sacco, whose stake remained unchanged at 2.47 percent, making Co-op Bank staff the single largest shareholder bloc outside the bank’s main cooperative holding structure.
The shares were acquired through Co-opholdings Co-operative Society Limited, the investment vehicle of Kenya’s cooperative movement, which controls a 64.56 percent stake in the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed lender.
The additional shares are currently valued at about Sh1.77 billion based on Co-op Bank’s prevailing market price of Sh32.25 per share at the NSE.
The development underscores growing confidence among employees in the bank’s performance and long-term prospects following a strong financial year in which the lender posted a 16.8 percent rise in net profit to Sh29.75 billion and increased its dividend payout by 66.6 percent to Sh2.50 per share.
Standard Investment Bank executive director for research and sustainable finance Eric Musau described the move as a strong endorsement of the lender by its own staff.
“Staff sacco increasing their stake is a vote of confidence,” Musau said, noting that despite the absence of a formal Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP), the transaction demonstrates employees’ belief in the bank’s future growth.
The ownership changes also highlighted increased trading activity within the cooperative movement’s over-the-counter market, where affiliated saccos buy and sell shares while maintaining the cooperative movement’s majority control of the bank.
During the same period, Kenya National Police Sacco also increased its stake to 2.38 percent, while Co-op Bank Group Managing Director and CEO Gideon Muriuki retained a 2.3 percent shareholding, making him one of the bank’s top individual shareholders.