Acting Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph has for the first time explained why he opted to offload his shares.
Mr Joseph, who took over on a temporary basis last year after the death of Bob Collymore, sold his Sh1.17 million shares.
According to Business Daily, Joseph sold his shares to build a retirement home in Kenya. He didn't reveal the location.
“When you invest in a company as I did with Safaricom you invest for a reason,” Mr Joseph said.
“You invest at some point because you want to invest. When you take the money out you want to spend on something. In my semi-retirement, I am building a house and I needed the funds”.
Going by the prevailing Safaricom share price of Sh27 around the time he offloaded his shares, Mr Joseph’s shareholding was worth well over Sh31 million. Safaricom’s share price closed at Sh32 on Thursday.
“If I could keep (my shares) there, I could keep them there. I could keep them for sure. It has nothing to do with Safaricom,” he said on the decision to sell off his entire stake.
Joseph is also the chairman of the National Carrier, Kenya Airways, which has not been making profits lately.
He acquired Kenyan citizenship through naturalisation in 2014 and is now regarded as a permanent Kenyan resident. He had left Safaricom in 2010 as CEO.