A US-based global financial services firm is set to sell its entire 24.1 percent stake in ICEA Lion Insurance Holdings, which it acquired from the family of former Central Bank of Kenya governor Philip Ndegwa for Sh2.4 billion.
Prudential Financial Inc., which acquired the stake in 2021, has disclosed that it has agreed to dispose of the shareholding, subject to regulatory approvals.
The US firm holds the ICEA stake through Leapfrog Strategic Africa Investments (LSAI).
LSAI, in turn, holds the stake through Eastern Africa Holdings, a special-purpose investment vehicle incorporated in the United Kingdom.
Prudential has not disclosed the value of the deal or the buyer.
“In January 2026, an agreement was entered into to sell the company’s 24 percent equity interest (through a private equity limited partnership managed by LeapFrog Investments) in ICEA Lion Insurance Holdings, Ltd., a Kenya-based insurer and asset manager,” said the firm in its latest filings at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
“The closing of this transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.”
ICEA Lion Insurance Holdings is majority-owned by First Chartered Securities (FCS), which holds a 75.9 percent stake that is controlled by the Ndegwa family.
In 2021, Prudential acquired the stake, with the two firms saying the partnership was designed to drive innovation, enhance digitisation, improve customer connectivity and develop new products while optimising operational synergies across the company’s various functions.
The transaction is in line with Leapfrog’s investment strategy, where it invests, grows value, and then exits profitably.
Leapfrog previously bought and sold stakes in insurers, including Apollo Investments Limited—the parent company of APA Life and APA General Insurance.
Leapfrog in July last year sold its entire 69.9 percent stake in Goodlife Pharmacy to medicine distributor CFAO Healthcare, marking its exit from the retail pharmacy chain after nine years.
Prudential Financial told investors in an earnings call on February 4 that the exit from ICEA is part of a broader push to redeploy capital into higher-return opportunities.
The firm had exited PGIM Taiwan—its global investment management business— in East Asia during the third quarter of last year.
“Exited PGIM Taiwan in the third quarter 2025 and our insurance business in Kenya in the first quarter 2026 as part of ongoing evaluation of capital allocation towards higher return opportunities,” said the firm.
ICEA Lion Insurance Holdings provides life and general insurance as well as asset and fund management through its subsidiaries spread out in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Latest Insurance Regulatory Authority disclosures show ICEA Lion Life Assurance commanded the second-largest market share (13.9 percent) in long-term insurance business behind market leader, Britam Life (21.2 percent).
In the short-term business, ICEA Lion General held 3.82 percent, making it the eighth largest.
ICEA Lion Life posted a 12.1 percent growth in net profit to Sh3.59 billion in the year ended December 2024, as that of ICEA Lion General grew by 17.5 percent to Sh1.34 billion over the same period.
The Prudential transaction is the latest deal in Kenya’s financial sector that has seen several key buyouts.
In the insurance sector, Sanlam Kenya and Allianz SE recently completed a merger, while NCBA Group acquired 66.67 percent of the issued share capital of AIG Kenya Insurance Company.
In October last year, Mauritian-based private equity firm Adenia Holdings announced its acquisition of insurance broker Minet as part of a pan-African deal, expanding its Kenyan portfolio that also includes supermarket chain QuickMart.
Djibouti-based Tamini Insurance entered the Kenyan market in April 2025 by acquiring a majority stake in Takaful Insurance of Africa (TIA).
For the Ndegwas, the 2021 deal with Leapfrog marked the latest transaction in their diversified portfolio, which ranges from manufacturing, real estate, logistics, insurance and banking.
The family’s strategy has been defined by selling struggling assets and pursuing mergers and acquisitions in sectors with high-growth potential.
ICEA Lion Asset Management bought Stanlib Kenya for an undisclosed sum in the quest to build scale in the fund management business.
The Ndegwas also led the merger of the former NIC Group and CBA Group in 2020 to create NCBA Group, which is being bought by South Africa’s Nedbank Group in a cash-and-stock deal.
They have also sold some of their assets in recent years.
The family, for instance, in 2015 sold the ICEA Building in Nairobi’s central business district to Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology for Sh1.8 billion, leading to its renaming as JKUAT Towers.
The sale of the building was followed by the disposal of Ennsvalley Bakery to Unga Group, a company in which the Ndegwas have a controlling 50.93 percent stake.
