Inside the NSE: Jubilee Holdings (JUB)

Jubilee Holdings is East Africa’s oldest and largest composite insurer, tracing its roots to a single Mombasa office in 1937.

Nearly ninety years later, it’s grown into a regional financial group spanning five countries, still guided by the same institutional family that founded it, the Aga Khan Development Network. Here’s the full picture.

History and Founding Story

Jubilee Insurance began life in 1937, when the Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya (JICK) was incorporated in Mombasa, becoming the first locally incorporated insurance company in the country.

It started small, selling life policies out of a single office, and by 1951 had moved to larger premises on Kilindini Road as the business grew.

The company expanded steadily through the mid twentieth century, moving into Mauritius in 1952 and opening its headquarters in Nairobi in 1968, the year after the East African Community was formed and eased regional business expansion.

In 1972, the company adopted its now familiar “4Js” logo, and in 1973 it broadened its ownership base ahead of what would become its NSE listing two years later.

Jubilee’s public shares first began trading in 1975, though some records note a share sale at KSh5 in 1984 as it deepened local ownership further.

The following decades saw continued regional growth: Jubilee revived its Uganda operations in 1992, resumed operations in Tanzania in 1998, and cross listed on both the Uganda Securities Exchange and the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange in 2005 and 2006.

In 2014, the group made a major structural decision, splitting its business into separate long term (life, health, pensions) and short term (general) insurance entities, a move that set the stage for its most significant recent transaction: in September 2020, Jubilee sold controlling stakes (51% to 66%) in its general insurance subsidiaries across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and Mauritius to German insurer Allianz SE, for a total of roughly KSh10.8 billion.

Jubilee retained its life, pensions, and medical insurance businesses outright. In 2025, the group marked its 88th anniversary under Group CEO Dr. Julius Kipngetich and Chairman Zul Abdul.

Core Business Lines / Revenue Streams

Jubilee Holdings today operates as a diversified financial services group, with insurance still at its core but a growing contribution from investments and asset management.

Life assurance and pensions: Jubilee Life Insurance Company of Kenya, wholly owned by the group, remains a market leading franchise in life cover, savings, and retirement products, and was the standout performer in the first half of 2026, with life business revenue growing 14% even as the wider insurance segment struggled.
Health insurance: Jubilee Health Insurance Company of Kenya holds the number one position in medical insurance across the region, though rising medical inflation has weighed on underwriting profitability in this segment recently.
Asset management: Jubilee Asset Management has become one of the group’s fastest growing units, with retail assets under management more than doubling (up 116%) year on year to KSh33 billion by mid-2026, and the business was recognised as the region’s Fastest Growing Retail Asset Management Company at the 2026 Global Banking and Finance Awards.
Investments and property: As with most insurers, a large share of Jubilee’s profit comes from its investment portfolio (government securities, equities, and property) rather than pure underwriting. Net insurance finance result, essentially investment and interest rate related gains, rose 45.8% in the first half of 2026 and was the single biggest driver of profit growth.
General insurance (minority stake): Following the 2020 Allianz transaction and the subsequent 2023 Sanlam-Allianz merger, Jubilee’s former general insurance units became part of SanlamAllianz Holdings, in which Jubilee retains a minority economic interest rather than operational control.
Regional subsidiaries: Operations span Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and (historically) Mauritius, serving well over 1.9 million clients group wide.

Competitive Position in Its Industry

Jubilee has held the position of largest composite insurer in East Africa for over a decade, and its health business specifically holds the number one market position across the region.

Full year 2025 results underlined that scale: profit before tax rose 15% to a record KSh7.2 billion, net profit rose 18% to KSh5.6 billion, and gross written premiums and deposit administration contributions grew 18% to KSh62.4 billion.

That said, recent results also show a group increasingly reliant on investment returns rather than core underwriting to drive growth.

In the first half of 2026, insurance service result (the profit purely from underwriting activity, before investment gains) fell 59.6% to KSh445 million, hit by rising claims and medical inflation in the health book, even as net profit overall climbed 12.7% to KSh3.45 billion on the back of strong investment income.

Management has flagged corrective measures for the corporate health portfolio specifically.

Jubilee’s main listed rivals are Britam Holdings, CIC Insurance Group, and the merged Sanlam Allianz Holdings Kenya (which now houses Jubilee’s former general insurance business as a separate entity).

Jubilee’s particular strengths, life insurance depth, regional health market leadership, and a rapidly scaling asset management arm, differentiate it from insurers more concentrated in general insurance or a single country.

Ownership Structure

Jubilee Holdings is privately founded and remains closely controlled by its founding institutional shareholder even after nearly ninety years and multiple stock exchange listings.

Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED): The dominant shareholder, holding 27,528,739 shares, a 37.98% stake, out of 72,472,950 total issued shares. AKFED is the economic development arm of the Aga Khan Development Network and has anchored Jubilee’s ownership since its founding era.
Other institutional and corporate shareholders: A mix of Kenyan and regional companies and investment vehicles, including entities such as Freight Forwarders Kenya Limited and United Housing Estate Limited, hold smaller but notable stakes.
Individual and family shareholders: A number of long standing individual investors hold meaningful positions, reflecting the company’s decades long shareholder base.
General public and institutional investors: The remainder is held by the broader investing public, including pension funds and fund managers, trading the stock on the NSE, Uganda Securities Exchange, and Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange.

Notably, sister companies within the wider AKFED network, such as Diamond Trust Bank Kenya, are frequent cross shareholders in Jubilee and vice versa, reflecting the closely interwoven ownership structure of AKFED affiliated businesses in East Africa.

Why It’s Listed on the NSE Specifically

Jubilee’s NSE listing dates back to 1975, following the broadening of its ownership base in 1973, making it one of the older continuously listed counters on the exchange.

The listing served the same fundamental purpose it does for most insurers: insurance is capital intensive, and public markets gave Jubilee access to growth capital as it expanded beyond Kenya into Uganda, Tanzania, Mauritius, and eventually Burundi.

What sets Jubilee apart is that it later cross listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange and Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange as well, in 2005 and 2006, making it the only ISO certified insurance group listed on all three East African exchanges.

That triple listing reflects the genuinely regional structure of the business and gives investors in any of the three countries direct access to the same underlying company.

For Kenyan and regional investors, the NSE listing offers exposure to one of the continent’s oldest and most established insurance brands, one whose governance and ownership remain unusually stable given AKFED’s long standing controlling stake, a factor some investors view as a source of strategic consistency across market cycles.

Current Stock Price

Jubilee’s share price has traded in a wide range historically, from an all time low of KSh109.00 in January 2012 to an all time high of KSh550.00 in March 2018.

Recent trading data put the stock at around KSh412, having pulled back roughly 1.85% on the day, with the stock up about 22.8% over the preceding year.

That places it well off its 2018 peak but firmly in recovery mode, supported by record full year 2025 profit and continued half year 2026 growth.

Share prices move daily. For a live quote, check the NSE’s official market data page or a licensed brokerage platform before making any decisions.

How to Buy Jubilee Holdings Shares

You don’t need to be in Kenya to buy JUB shares; it can be bought locally or from abroad:

Open a CDS (Central Depository System) account. This is Kenya’s electronic share registry account, required to hold any NSE listed stock. It’s opened through a licensed stockbroker or investment bank.
Choose a licensed NSE stockbroker or investment bank. Examples include firms like Standard Investment Bank, AIB-AXYS Africa, Genghis Capital, and Faida Investment Bank. A full list of licensed trading participants is available on the NSE website.
Fund your trading account via bank transfer, mobile money (M-Pesa is widely supported), or card, depending on the broker.
Place an order for JUB through the broker’s trading platform, app, or by instructing your broker directly, specifying the number of shares or amount you want to invest.
For non resident and diaspora investors, several online platforms (such as mystocks.africa and similar cross border brokerages) let you open an account remotely, fund it in USD or your local currency, and buy NSE listed shares like JUB without needing an in country presence, though you should confirm licensing and custody arrangements before using any platform.
Hold and track. Shares are held electronically in your CDS account. Jubilee has a strong dividend track record, having paid KSh15 per share (up 11%) for the 2025 financial year and maintained a KSh2.00 per share interim dividend for the first half of 2026, paid out directly to your linked bank account.

This profile is for informational and editorial purposes and is not investment advice. Stock prices, especially, change constantly, so always verify current figures with the NSE or a licensed broker before making any investment decision. Other figures reflect the most recent publicly reported data as of 2026 and may change with new financial disclosures.