Mr. Koome Mwambia, the chief executive of Ogilvy East Africa Ltd, has sold part of the shares he earned in ScanGroup after a share swap deal involving the two firms last August. Regulatory fillings at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) show that Mr. Mwambia’s stake in the marketing communication agency dropped to 0.99 per cent at the end of October from 1.33 per cent in December last year. The move earned him more than KES12mn from the more than 300,000 share shares he sold—marking the first sale after the expiry of the one year lock-in period to harvest part of the investment. Mr. Mwambia acquired the stake last August after ScanGroup bought half of Ogilvy East Africa in a cash and share transaction worth KES234mn. Under the deal, he was paid KES20.6mn and given 3.1mn shares in ScanGroup in exchange for his 22 per cent stake in Ogilvy East Africa but was barred from selling the shares for a period of between one and four years. “Koome entered into a lock-in agreement for part of the Scangroup shares for one year, some for two years and the majority for four years,” said Bharat Thakrar, the CEO of Scangroup in a telephone interview Wednesday. The shares were valued at KES26.40 when Mr. Mwambia sealed the purchase deal with Scangroup—which means he made capital gain of 51 per cent given the company’s average share price of KES40 in months of September and October. The two companies have continued to operate independently with Scangroup assuring investors and Mr. Mwambia that he will retain the chief executive position at Ogilvy East Africa. Details in Scangroup’s annual report and fillings at the NSE show that the shares were placed under the custody of Chase Bank Kenya Ltd—which rank Mr. Mwambia as the firm’s ninth largest shareholder. On Wednesday, the firm’s shares traded at KES39.50 compared to KES66.50 in January, meaning the bear run at the NSE has cost its shareholders KES7.7bn since the year began. The Ogilvy East Africa chief executive’s decision to reduce his stake in the marketing firm puts him in step with the CEOs of Equity Bank and Cooperative Bank—James Mwangi and Gideon Muriuki respectively—who have sold part of their shares in the twin banks this year. Mr. Mwambia has emerged as one of the Key beneficiaries of the Scangroup/Ogilvy deal since it has not only seen the value of his investments appreciate, but the Nairobi bourse has allowed him to easily harvest part of his interests. His stake is now worth KES112mn–which is higher than the early valuation of his 22 per cent stake at KES103mn in spite of receiving KES20.6mn cash and selling shares worth KES12mn. Scangroup also purchased a 51 per cent in Ogilvy Africa also in cash and stock transactions worth USD2.3mn that gave it minority stakes in eight media agencies in South and West Africa of between 6.4 and 15.3 per cent. In buying Ogilvy Africa, Scangroup will tap a long list of multinational firms including beer giant SABMiller, Unilever and BAT.