East African Cables and Transcentury Group have been placed under receivership for defaulting on a Sh3.01 billion-shilling loan facility advanced by Equity Bank Kenya Limited.

In a notice published on local dailies, Equity appointed Muniu Thoithi and George Weru from PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PwC) as joint administrators effective Friday June 16, 2023.

“The joint administrators are currently engaging all key stakeholders of the company as they seek to achieve the best possible outcome to the current situation of the company,” said PWC in the notice.

PWC added, “The purpose of this is to notify all interested stakeholders that following Receiver’s appointment, the affairs and business of the company shall be directed by the receiver.”

Transcentury Group’s loan has been non-performing for the past four years with Equity spending the last two years giving the group a chance to float a Rights Issue to raise Sh5.6 billion to offset part of the facility.

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According to PWC, East African Cables and Transcentury directors no longer enjoy powers to oversee the business transactions or deal with the assets of the two troubled companies.

“Any person who purports to hold, receive, use, or attempts to buy, sell, contract, or otherwise deal with the assets of the company or with the company without the prior written consent of the Receivers will be acting in contravention of the law and will be liable to legal action,” stated PWC.

Equity, by placing the two Kenyan firms under receivership, seeks to recover its outstanding debt, after it took over East African Cables’ Sh2 billion advanced to it by various lenders.


Transcentury Group (TC) operates a variety of businesses across East, Central and Southern Africa that have facilities a number of facilities with Equity Bank Kenya Limited.

Among them is East African Cables (EAC), which manufactures copper and aluminium cables and conductors and operates two plants in Nairobi and one in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

EAC, which is listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), is 68.4 per cent owned by Cable Holdings (Kenya) Ltd, and owns 51 per cent stake in East African Cables (TZ) Limited.

TC also operates Civicon Limited, whose majority stakeholder is Civicon Africa Group Ltd, provides EPC (Engineer, Procure, Construct) construction and logistics equipment in Africa.

Transcentury also enjoys 94.4 per cent stake in AEA Limited (formerly Avery East Africa), which specializes in manufacturing generators targeting markets across Africa.