British multinational George Williamson & Co earned Sh582.6 million from its local units Williamson Tea Kenya and Kapchorua Tea in the year to March 2026 in royalties and dividends, with the payouts rising 76 percent from Sh330.94 million the year before.
Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed Williamson Tea said in its latest annual report that its royalties and licence fees to the British parent rose to Sh135.25 million from Sh106.32 million.
The company distributed Sh270.37 million to its parent in dividends in the period under review, after declaring a payout of Sh15 per share.
In the previous year, it paid a dividend of Sh90.12 million to the parent, at a rate of Sh10 per share.
Kapchorua’s royalties and licence payments amounted to Sh64.51 million, down from Sh87.67 million previously, while its dividend payment to George Williamson rose to Sh112.47 million from Sh46.83 million.
Royalties are usually paid by subsidiaries to parent firms for use of intellectual property (IP) rights, which can include trademarks, patents, software and trade names. Williamson Tea and Kapchorua did not disclose the specific rights and licences to which its payments apply.
George Williamson has a 51.46 percent stake in Williamson Tea, equivalent to 18.02 million shares, which are held through an investment vehicle known as Ngong Tea Holdings Limited.
Williamson Tea had awarded shareholders a bonus issue of one share for each held in October 2025, which doubled the units held by Ngong Tea Holdings from 9.01 million to 18.02 million shares.
Coupled with the increase in the dividend per share, the company therefore tripled the total distribution to shareholders between 2025 and 2026.
Kapchorua also issued a bonus share of one for each held. George Williamsons’ direct stake of 23.96 percent in the company thus rose to 3.75 million shares from 1.87 million units.
Williamson Tea also holds a 39.56 percent stake or 6.19 million shares in Kapchorua, making the latter an associate.
Kapchorua raised its dividend from Sh25 per share in the prior year to Sh30 in the review period, increasing the parent firm’s earnings from Sh46.86 million to Sh112.47 million. It also paid Williamson Tea a dividend of Sh185.7 million, up from Sh77.4 million in the previous year.
Both tea firms however dipped into retained earnings to make the dividend payments, having reported net profits that were lower than their total distributions.
In the year ended March 2026, Williamson Tea’s net profit stood at Sh120.7 million, compared to a net loss of Sh166.4 million previously. Its total dividend distribution in the period amounted to Sh525.3 million.
Kapchorua on its part reported a net profit of Sh196.9 million in the period, up from Sh181.1 million in March 2025, while its total dividend payout stood at Sh469.4 million.
George Williamson has also booked capital gains on its holdings in the two companies after the issuance of bonus shares, increasing its total return from the firms over the past year.
At the time the books closed on the bonus issuance on October 13, 2025, Kapchorua was trading at Sh394.25 per share, valuing the British parent’s stake at Sh739 million.
After doubling in number of shares to 3.75 million in the bonus, the value of the stake has now climbed by 72 percent to Sh1.27 billion, as at Friday’s closing price of Sh339.75.
The value of the Williamson Tea stake has climbed by 10 percent to Sh2.98 billion from Sh2.72 billion in October.
The company’s share price has fallen to Sh165.50 from Sh302 following the bonus issuance, but the doubling of number of shares has yielded the overall valuation gain for shareholders.
