Inside the NSE: Nairobi Business Ventures (NBV)

NBV started as an importer and retailer of leather shoes and accessories, buying mainly from China and India and selling them in Nairobi first under the brand “Kwanza Shoes” and, from 2013, as “K-Shoe”.

The founders were Vasu Abotula and Raj Srungarapu. By 2018 it ran six retail outlets in prime Nairobi locations.

The company reached the exchange in June 2016, when it listed by introduction on the Growth Enterprise Market Segment (GEMS), the NSE’s junior board, at KSh5 a share, valuing it at KSh118 million.

It had just raised KSh28 million from 26 new shareholders through a private placement, the founders held 69.4% and the public 30.6%, and it became the first leather footwear retailer to list on the exchange.

The stated plan was to open more shops and move into manufacturing leather footwear.

That plan did not work, and by 2020 the shoe business had collapsed. In October 2020, the NSE suspended trading in the shares while a rescue deal was completed.

Shareholders approved a KSh83 million investment by Delta International FZE, a company based in the UAE, which received 415 million newly created shares at KSh0.20 each and ended up with about 84% of the company, squeezing existing shareholders to roughly 16%.

The structure, known as a reverse takeover, let Delta use the company’s listing instead of applying for its own.

Trading resumed on 30 November 2020, and on 1 December the share jumped 649% from KSh0.71 to KSh5.32, which made it the best performing counter of 2020.

Delta then moved quickly to build an industrial group. In roughly four months it spent KSh428.75 million to buy four companies: Air Direct Connect (aircraft maintenance), Delta Automobile (truck servicing), Aviation Management Solutions, and Delta Cement, which planned a one million tonne a year cement plant at Mavoko in Machakos County.

Shareholders also voted in 2021 to move the company from GEMS to the main market, which would have made it the first firm to graduate from the junior board, subject to regulatory approval.

Core Business Lines / Revenue Streams

NBV is now a small holding company with three or four parts, and the mix has changed a lot in a short time.

Truck maintenance (Delta Automobile): Servicing and repairing heavy trucks. It was the group’s largest revenue contributor, at 64% of revenue in the year to March 2025. In the year to March 2026, its revenue fell 68% to KSh103.5 million and it lost KSh162.6 million after tax, hit by high operating and finance costs and the loss of business. It is exploring alliances, including a possible assembly operation for electric motorcycles for East African markets.
Aircraft maintenance (Air Direct Connect and Aviation Management Solutions): The aviation division’s revenue grew from KSh74.6 million to KSh133.3 million in the year to March 2025 on more maintenance work. In the year to March 2026, however, Air Direct Connect’s revenue fell to KSh34.9 million and it lost KSh26.8 million, mostly from extra administrative costs for capacity it took on ahead of expected business.
Trading (the old NBV business): Shoes were replaced by supplying raw materials to cement and steel makers, but the trading division earned no revenue in the year to March 2026 after a restructuring and lost KSh3.1 million.
Cement and land (Delta Cement): The cement plant has not proceeded, and the board has said the idea is now unlikely to go ahead. Delta Cement owns 28 acres next to Mombasa Road, and NBV is reviewing real estate options for that land.

Competitive Position in Its Industry

NBV has no obvious competitive edge. It is a very small business in several crowded or cyclical fields, truck maintenance, aircraft servicing, and trading, and the cement project that was supposed to be the anchor has stalled in a sector dominated by large producers such as Bamburi and National Cement.

The results show the strain. In the year to March 2025, revenue fell 37.3% to KSh508 million and net profit fell 11.1% to KSh32.2 million.

In April 2026 the board issued a profit warning saying earnings for the year to March 2026 would be at least 25% lower, and the abridged results released in September 2026 describe a significant downturn in overall revenue.

Ownership Structure

NBV is controlled by a Delta aligned group of holders. The most recent breakdown I found, from 2021, was:

Shreeji Enterprises Limited (Kenya): 32.69%.
Delta International FZE (UAE): 30.66%.
Soni Haresh Vrajlal: 16.42%.
General public: The rest. About 1,150 shareholders were on the register in mid 2021, half of whom owned fewer than 1,000 shares, a legacy of the retail buying frenzy around the Delta deal.

Why It’s Listed on the NSE Specifically

NBV listed in 2016 on the GEMS board to raise small amounts of growth capital for the shoe business. That is what the segment was designed for, and NBV was an early example.

Its real significance came in 2020, when the listing itself became the asset.

Business Daily reported that Delta planned to use the 84% stake to “automatically acquire a listing status”, which let a private group enter the public market without an IPO and gave it a quoted vehicle for raising capital. For ordinary investors, the lesson is that a stock can rise several hundred percent on a change of control and a plan, long before the business delivers anything.

Current Stock Price

Earlier, the share was KSh1.76 in May 2025, and in January 2026 the company’s market value was about KSh1.9 billion on 1.35 billion shares.

For perspective, the stock hit KSh6 in 2020 after the Delta takeover, so it has fallen more than 75% from that peak. It is also very thinly traded: indicative liquidity over the twelve months to 1 September 2026 was only about US$257,000 (around KSh32 million), and the price can move sharply on small volumes.

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 Nairobi Business Ventures Shares

You don’t need to be in Kenya to buy NBV 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 NBV through the broker’s trading platform, app, or by instructing your broker directly. Because the stock trades thinly, use limit orders.
For non resident and diaspora investors, several online platforms (such as mystocks.africa, which lets you start from as little as USD 10) let you open an account remotely, fund it in USD or your local currency, and buy NSE listed shares like NBV 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. Do not expect dividend income: the board recommended no dividend for the year to March 2025, and I found no sign of a dividend history since the Delta deal. With a profit warning outstanding and the main subsidiaries loss making, income should not be assumed.

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. NBV is a small, thinly traded, loss making company, and readers should treat the ownership figures in particular as dated.