The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) approved merger and acquisition (M&A) deals valued at Sh25 billion in the financial year ended June 2025, pointing to sustained corporate restructuring and market consolidation.
Latest disclosures by the competition watchdog revealed that it cleared 128 M&A deals in the year to June 30, 2025, marking a 20 percent rise compared to 107 in the previous year. The CAK did not disclose the value of deals approved in 2024.
“Merger approvals unlocked investments worth over Sh25 billion, contributing to employment creation and increased consumer choice,” CAK said.
Manufacturing, finance, insurance, and distribution sectors accounted for more than half (52.9 percent) of the deals, signifying their importance in the overall economic landscape.
Other sectors that recorded merger activities were mining, printing, packaging, health, education, accounting, auditing, e-commerce, pharmaceutical, floriculture, publishing, hospitality, and ICT.
The deals saw CAK earn Sh109.85 million as merger filing fees, which is the amount payable by merging parties when filing for approval for the authority to consider the application.
Fees charged range from Sh1 million to Sh4 million for firms with turnover or asset bases of between Sh1 billion and Sh50 billion, whichever is higher.
CAK says it earned Sh43.05 million as merger filing fees in the local market, marking a rise from Sh39 million in the previous year. However, merger filing fees on the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) deals dropped to Sh66.8 million from Sh110.73 million.
“The watchdog’s share of Comesa filing fees is arrived at using a pre-determined formula agreed upon by and applicable to all the member countries and is recognised when received,” said CAK.
Deal surge
The watchdog said earlier that the country's interconnectivity with the global economy has made the economy attractive to foreign direct investment, evidenced by an increase in high-net-worth merger transactions.
CAK says 30 of the applications received were full mergers, 19 were exclusions, and 45 were Comesa-linked deals. Six of the applications were non-mergers, while 28 were advisory opinions.
Comesa deals are for those transactions where the merger affects multiple countries in the Comesa region, including the Kenyan market.
The watchdog assesses deals in line with merger threshold guidelines that look at factors such as turnover and asset value to determine how to treat the application.
“These thresholds are based on factors such as turnover or asset value, which determine whether a merger warrants an in-depth investigation to assess potential anti-competitive effects,” said CAK.
Deals that do not require a detailed review are classified as exclusion mergers. This applies to deals whose combined turnover or value of assets is at least Sh1 billion, whichever is higher.
The merger regulation regime in Kenya is guided by the Competition Act and related rules and guidelines.
CAK analyses all proposed mergers to ensure that transactions that are unlikely to lessen competition are exempted from the filing process, saving them time and money. This ensures the timely conclusion of transactions.
