{"id":4693,"date":"2026-01-09T15:53:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/?p=4693"},"modified":"2026-01-09T15:53:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:53:48","slug":"high-court-approves-regulatory-steps-in-diageo-asahi-share-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/2026\/01\/09\/high-court-approves-regulatory-steps-in-diageo-asahi-share-sale\/","title":{"rendered":"High Court Approves Regulatory Steps in Diageo\u2013Asahi Share Sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Court has allowed Diageo PLC to seek regulatory approval and continue with other processes as it transfers its shareholding in East African Breweries to Asahi Group Holdings of Japan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a session mid-morning on Friday, Justice Bahati Mwamuye said no final action of the sale should be concluded by January 20, in 11 days, the date the case by Bia Tosha Distributors shall be allocated a judge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Justice Mwamuye referred the matter to the Presiding Judge for reallocation. It will be mentioned on January 20 for further directions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Diageo PLC has agreed to transfer its shareholding in East Africa\u2019s largest manufacturing entity to Asahi Group for $2.3 billion, the biggest such transaction in Kenya in recent times.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"High<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe welcome the Court\u2019s decision to allow the regulatory phases of this transaction to continue,\u201d said EABL.<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest case by Bia Tosha Distributors is an application on a case it filed in 2016 after its contract with Kenya Breweries Limited failed to be renewed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Court Allows Regulatory Phase of Diageo\u2013Asahi Transaction to Proceed<\/span><\/h2>\n

EABL said the case by Bia Tosha is a legacy commercial dispute regarding local distribution routes and has no factual or legal connection to the shareholding of its parent company.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an accompany affidavit, Anthony Smith,\u00a0<\/span>Diageo\u2019s General Counsel<\/a>, said the transaction is a long way from finalisation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe regulatory approval process has not yet commenced and completion of the Transaction is expected in the second half of the calendar year 2026. Therefore, completion of the sale is not imminent,\u201d said Smith.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith argued that Bia Tosha\u2019s case is based on misconceptions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Court Allows Regulatory Phase of Diageo\u2013Asahi Transaction to Proceed<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cThere is no risk that any judgment against Diageo PLC, a multi-national company of over US$48 billion market capitalisation, which has submitted to this jurisdiction, and which intends to retain assets in this jurisdiction, would be unenforceable,\u201d said Smith.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Transaction was secured through a complex, competitive process with a buyer of Asahi’s scale and suitability, and a delay or open-ended restraint could foreseeably hinder the parties in completing the Transaction,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

With the case targeting EABL and its subsidiary KBL, which are Kenyan and have substantial assets, he added, any judgements against them would be enforceable locally.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bia Tosha has had a long-running dispute with EABL after its contracts failed to be renewed after it demanded a 300 per cent increase in its margins. Bia Tosha is owned by a former EABL employee, Peter Burugu, and is now managed by his daughter, Anne-Marie Burugu.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In court, lawyers for Diageo and EABL said that Bia Tosha is seeking to extend its fight over distributorship to the transaction between Diageo and Asahi, which is being carried out at shareholder level as KBL and EABL continue in their commercial activities.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The High Court has allowed Diageo PLC to seek regulatory approval and continue with other processes as it transfers its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,15],"tags":[302,303,296,301],"class_list":["post-4693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-trends","tag-diageo-asahi-deal","tag-eablvsbiabora","tag-eablvskbl","tag-high-court-approves-regulatory-steps-in-diageo-asahi-share-sale"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/High-COurt-of-Kenya-1-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4695,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4693\/revisions\/4695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsroomhub.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}