Cable Experts Limited announced on Tuesday, May 20, 2026, that it intends to acquire a 68.57 percent controlling stake in East African Cables PLC through a Share Purchase Agreement signed with TransCentury PLC’s court appointed receivers, in a move designed to revive the struggling Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed manufacturer.
The proposed transaction covers 173 million ordinary shares held through Cable Holdings Kenya Ltd and comes as both companies navigate court-supervised insolvency proceedings. TransCentury entered receivership after failing to repay approximately Ksh 2.8 billion owed to Equity Bank, with PricewaterhouseCoopers partners Muniu Thoithi and George Weru appointed as joint receivers and managers. East African Cables, meanwhile, has been placed under administration, leaving the future of one of Kenya’s industrial assets in question.
In a public notice issued on Tuesday, Cable Experts said the transaction “includes the retirement of EAC’s existing secured bank indebtedness and is intended to enable the continuation of EAC’s cable manufacturing business,” adding that it “intends to maintain and increase the local workforce as well as restore EAC as a reputable market leading brand.”
East African Cables operates manufacturing facilities in Nairobi’s Industrial Area and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, supplying cables used across Kenya’s construction, energy and infrastructure sectors. TransCentury acquired its controlling interest in the company in 2004, making this the most significant ownership change in over two decades. The deal is expected to safeguard operations and preserve hundreds of jobs at a manufacturer whose products underpin much of the country’s built environment.
Despite gaining effective control, Cable Experts said it does not intend to make a mandatory takeover offer to minority shareholders, a step permitted under Kenyan capital markets regulations when an acquisition is carried out within insolvency proceedings supervised by the High Court.
The transaction still requires regulatory clearance from the Capital Markets Authority and the Competition Authority of Kenya before it can be completed. If approved, analysts say it would prevent the liquidation of a nationally significant industrial asset and mark a rare rescue deal in what has been a prolonged and painful restructuring for the TransCentury group.
