UAP Old Mutual Holdings

UAP Holdings Limited is an investment, retirement, and insurance group that operates mainly in Eastern Africa, but has plans to be a pan-African insurance company. UAP Holdings is one of the leading insurance and financial services groups in eastern Africa with a network of branches and operational subsidiaries spread across the greater eastern and central Africa regions.

UAP Holdings Limited

Type	Public company: OTC
Industry	Insurance, financial services
Founded	1920; 101 years ago
Headquarters	UAP Old Mutual Tower Upper Hill Road Nairobi, Kenya
Key people	Arthur Oginga CEO Joseph B. Wanjui Chairman
Products	Life and health insurance, investment management, Investment advisory, brokerage, real estate investment trusts
Revenue	KES: 16.8 billion (2015)
Net income	KES: 0.89 billion (2015)
Total assets	KES: 48.7 billion (2015)
Website	Homepage

Overview

The group’s headquarters are located in Nairobi, Kenya, with subsidiaries in Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mauritius. The Mauritius units are holding companies for the non-Kenyan operations. The flagship company of the group is UAP Insurance Kenya.

History of UAP Old Mutual Holdings

The Group’s origins in Kenya date back to the 1920s when Provincial Insurance Company of East Africa was incorporated as a subsidiary of Provincial Insurance Company, an insurance group based in London, United Kingdom. The 1994 merger of Union des Assurances de Paris [fr] (UAP) of France and Provincial of the UK led to the formation of the UAP Insurance Company of Kenya. In 1996, the firm became part of Axa when Axa acquired UAP in France. Axa divested its shareholding in 2000 and the firm became a wholly owned Kenyan company.

UAP Holdings expanded to Uganda in 2005, to South Sudan in 2006, to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2011, and to Tanzania in 2013. All entries other than Tanzania were greenfield investments. The group entered Tanzania through the acquisition of Century Insurance Company Limited and re-branded it to UAP Century Insurance Company Limited. In total, UAP has sixteen businesses operating in the region.

On 8 January 2015, Centum and Chris Kirubi announced that they had entered into an agreement with Old Mutual for the sale of their 13.75 percent and 9.58 percent stake in UAP Holdings, respectively, to the London Stock Exchange-listed financial giant in a deal valued at over KES 7 Billion. Once complete, Old Mutual will hold 23.33 percent of UAP Holdings-issued shares and will act as a strategic investor to the group. On 27 January 2015, Kenyan print media reported that Old Mutual had acquired the shares in UAP Holdings previously owned by Abraaj, Africinvest, and Swedfund, amounting to 37.33 percent of total shareholding, for US$155.5 million (KSh14.2 billion), thereby raising Old Mutual’s ownership in UAP Holdings to 60.66 percent.

Subsidiaries and associated companies

The companies that comprise the UAP Holdings include, but are not limited, to the following:

1. UAP Insurance Company Limited – Nairobi, Kenya – 100% Shareholding – The flagship company of the group. Offering general insurance.
2. UAP Life Assurance Limited – Nairobi, Kenya – 100 percent shareholding – Offering life Insurance.
3. UAP Insurance Uganda Limited – Kampala, Uganda – 53 percent shareholding – Offering general insurance.
4. UAP Life Assurance Uganda Limited – Kampala, Uganda – 53 percent shareholding – Offering life insurance.^[11]
5. UAP Insurance South Sudan Limited – Juba, South Sudan – 100 percent shareholding – Offering general and life Insurance.
6. UAP Financial Services Kenya Limited – Nairobi, Kenya – 100 percent shareholding – Offering financial services, investment management, Investment advisory, and brokerage services.
7. UAP Financial Services Uganda Limited – Kampala, Uganda – 89 percent shareholding – Offering financial services, investment management, advisory and brokerage services.
8. UAP Investments – Nairobi, Kenya – 100 percent shareholding – Offering unit trusts and pension services.
9. UAP Properties Uganda Limited – Kampala, Uganda – 79 percent shareholding – real estate.
10. UAP Properties Kenya Limited – Nairobi, Kenya – 100 percent shareholding – real estate.
11. UAP Properties South Sudan Limited – Juba, South Sudan – 70 percent shareholding – real estate.
12. UAP Brokers – Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo – Offering brokerage services.
13. Union Life Rwanda Ltd – Kigali, Rwanda – 100 percent shareholding – Offering life insurance.
14. Union Insurance Rwanda Ltd – Kigali, Rwanda – 100 percent shareholding – Offering general insurance.
15. UAP Century Insurance Company Limited – Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, – 60 percent shareholding – Offering general and life insurance.
16. UAP Africa Limited – Port Louis, Mauritius – 100 percent shareholding – Holding company for insurance businesses.
17. UAP Investments – Port Louis, Mauritius – 100 percent shareholding – Holding company for advisory financial service businesses.
18. UAP Properties – Port Louis, Mauritius – 100 percent shareholding – Holding company for real estate businesses.
19. UAP Global Services – Port Louis, Mauritius – 100 percent shareholding – Dormant.
20. UAP Credit Services – Port Louis, Mauritius – 100 percent shareholding – Dormant.

Ownership of UAP Old Mutual Holdings

The shares of the UAP Old Mutual Holdings are traded over the counter at Dyer & Blair Investment Bank pending future listing on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. As of September 2018 the shareholding of UAP Old Mutual Holdings is expected to look as depicted in the table below:

1 – These are subsidiaries of Old Mutual of South Africa. This gives Old Mutual 66.67% control of UAP Holdings.

Governance

UAP Holdings is governed by a fourteen-person board of directors with Joseph Wanjui serving as the chairman of the group and Arthur Oginga as the chief executive officer.

Merger of UAP Old Mutual Holdings

In June 2015, shareholders of UAP Holdings agreed to merge with the parent company’s other businesses in Kenya, to create a single entity that is referred to as UAP-Old Mutual Group. The combined company is expected to list its shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. In June 2015, Peter Mwangi was appointed chief executive officer of the UAP-Old Mutual Group. In April 2020, Arthur Oginga took over as CEO. Joe B. Wanjui, the former chairman of UAP Holdings, will assume the role of chairman of the new UAP Old Mutual Group.

UAP Old Mutual Tower

UAP Old Mutual Tower is a 33-storey office complex in the Upper Hill neighborhood of Nairobi, the capital and largest city in Kenya. It became the tallest structure in Kenya upon its completion in 2015, surpassing Times Tower which had held that record for 15 years

ADVERTISEMENT

UAP Holding is set to open UAP Old Mutual Tower, a 33-storey office complex in Nairobi’s Upper Hill district.^[18] UAP Tower is set to becoming the tallest structure in eastern and central Africa upon its completion in 2015

Location

The skyscraper is located on Hospital Road, Upper Hill, Nairobi, about 3.5 kilometres (2 mi), west of the city’s central business district.

Overview

UAP Tower is owned by UAP Old Mutual Group, a financial services conglomerate headquartered in Kenya, with subsidiaries in six African countries. It has rentable space that measures 29,000 square metres (310,000 sq ft), and will also house the UAP Old Mutual Group headquarters once it is completely finished. The tower was financed through private equity at a total of 4 billion Kenyan shillings (approximately US$40,000,000 as of 2015). The building opened for business on 5 July 2016 and was 50 percent filled on opening day