Kenya Airways Shares Resume Trading After Near Five-Year Freeze
Kenya Airways Plc shares resumed trading after almost a five-year suspension brought about by a prolonged restructuring process to revive the national carrier and plug a drain on state resources.
The stock jumped as much as 10% to a seven-year high after the markets regulator approved lifting of the trading freeze. The shares shed the gains to trade 9.9% lower at 3.45 shillings by 11:08 a.m. in the capital, Nairobi.
The freeze was lifted following the national carrier’s “recent performance, which saw the company record a profit after tax and the withdrawal of the National Aviation Management Bill 2020,” the Nairobi Securities Exchange said in a statement on Monday.
Kenya Airways, which is 48.9% state-owned, has struggled to recover from a decade of losses and is currently seeking a strategic investor to help it re-capitalize after delivering its first profit in a decade for the six months through June. In March the carrier said it plans raise as much as $1.5 billion in fresh capital.
