Agricultural firm Sasini has terminated the planned sale of its coffee estate in Kiambu County for Sh7.9 billion after the buyer failed to meet its contractual obligations.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm says the sale of Gulmarg Division in Mweiga Estates Limited has been cancelled and the asset has ceased to be classified as one held for sale in the company’s financial statements.
“We also wish to notify all stakeholders that the sale transaction in respect of Gulmarg Estate, previously classified as an asset held for sale, has been formally terminated,” the company said in a statement accompanying its results for the half year ended March.
“The termination arose because of the purchaser’s failure to fulfil key contractual obligations by the stipulated due dates. The Gulmarg Estate will accordingly revert to operational use and will no longer be classified as an asset held for sale in the company’s financial statements.”
On September 17, 2025 Sasini agreed to sell the Gulmarg Division in Mweiga Estates Ltd, which has a carrying value of Sh3.7 billion, and classified the asset as “current assets held for sale.”
The transaction would have resulted in substantial profit in the form of capital gains. Sasini has over the years disposed of divisions and non-core properties, including its former building on Nairobi’s Loita Street, which it sold for more than Sh600 million in 2015.
In the same year (2015) it sold 513.7 acres of its leasehold land in Nyeri for Sh1 billion. The land housed its two coffee estates in Nyeri, which it said had been running losses for years.
Gulmarg Division had a net profit of Sh10.6 million in the year ended September 2025 helped by growth in the value of its plantations. The division had posted a net loss of Sh6.3 million the year before.
While the value of the land held by Sasini continues to grow the company keeps swinging from profit to losses in line with cycles in the commodities they grow and sell including coffee, tea and macadamia.
In the six months to March, higher costs saw the firm report a larger net loss of Sh170.8 million, compared to a net loss of Sh113 million a year earlier.
Sales rose to Sh3.01 billion from Sh2.96 billion. The loss was attributed to a complex operating landscape characterised by adverse weather, geopolitical tensions and rising logistics costs caused by the Middle East conflict, which pressured production volumes and export efficiency.
“While our coffee segment remained a standout performer with resilient pricing, the tea industry faced significant headwinds, including depressed prices at the Mombasa Auction due to global oversupply,” the company says.
“Although the Kenyan shilling remained stable, bolstered by tourism and diaspora inflows, inflation and logistics hurdles continue to strain the export outlook.”
Sasini disclosed in March this year that the company is scouting for new markets for its avocados and macadamia nuts in China and India, as its fruit exports to the traditional markets in Europe and the US face headwinds while the Middle East crisis escalates.
The firm said moving produce through Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz has proved difficult because of the volatile security situation, while navigating around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa is longer and twice as expensive, making its exports uncompetitive in their final destinations – Europe and the US.
The company mainly exports coffee, tea, avocados and macadamia to markets across Africa, Asia (Japan and Korea), Europe, and North America (Canada and the US).
However, the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, which began on February 28, have adversely impacted the security situation in the Middle East, which plays a critical role in the global transportation ecosystem.
