A Quiet Cash-Out: Muthoka Sells JKIA Cargo Firm for $40.1 Million
Key Highlights
- Celebi Cargo of Frankfurt paid $40.1 million, about KSh 5.2 billion, for 100 per cent of Transglobal Cargo Centre.
- Reporting this week puts Peter Muthoka's profit near $19 million, or KSh 2.5 billion.
- The handler moves 33 per cent of JKIA export cargo.
Peter Muthoka has taken cash out of the airport cargo shed that handles more Kenyan export freight than Kenya Airways Cargo.
Celebi Cargo GmbH, the Frankfurt arm of Turkey's Celebi group, bought 100 per cent of Transglobal Cargo Centre on 23 December 2025 for $40.1 million, about KSh 5.2 billion. Reporting published this week puts his profit near $19 million, or about KSh 2.5 billion. The buyer paid roughly twice the tangible assets on the books.
That is a private sale, not an NSE listing. Flowers, avocados and pharma that leave JKIA still move through the same warehouse. The owner of the warehouse changed.
What CAK actually cleared
The Competition Authority of Kenya decision dated 21 January 2026 approved the purchase with no conditions. Celebi handles about 200,000 tonnes a year at Frankfurt and, the authority said, had no Kenya operation. Adding a foreign handler with zero local share does not squeeze rival sheds on the same apron.
Transglobal trades as Africa Flight Services out of Embakasi. It takes about 33 per cent of JKIA export cargo against about 22 per cent for Kenya Airways Cargo, and about a fifth of air-freight imports. Other names on the tarmac include Siginon, Swissport and Mitchell Cotts.
CAK expected more kit and staff after the change of control. It did not attach a job-cut condition.
Where the cash is going
Muthoka has said part of the proceeds repay debt used to upgrade the shed, and that the rest strengthens Acceler Global Logistics, the freight firm he started in 1991. Standard Chartered has been named as a financier in later reporting. We have not seen a new audited Acceler balance sheet that shows the injection.
Debt is why the asset went. The company had borrowed to rebuild capacity and risked losing airline contracts if it did not. A sale at twice book is a sponsor exit, not a collapse of the shed.
What a shipper should watch
Rates and cut-off times at JKIA are set by handlers and airlines, not by who owns the equity. A new parent with Frankfurt volume can spend on scanners and cold rooms. It can also import its own playbook. Neither outcome is in the CAK paper.
Kenya's flower and fresh-produce exporters live on that warehouse clock. A missed build can cost a European slot. That is the household link: export jobs sit behind the same doors Muthoka just sold.
The profit figure is reporting, not a CMA filing. The price and the unconditional clearance are on the public record.
In Summary
- What was sold?
- All shares in Transglobal Cargo Centre Ltd, which trades as Africa Flight Services at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
- What was the price and the reported profit?
- Celebi Cargo GmbH paid $40.1 million (about KSh 5.2 billion) on 23 December 2025. Later reporting put Muthoka's profit at about $19 million (KSh 2.5 billion).
- Did the competition regulator object?
- No. CAK approved the purchase unconditionally on 21 January 2026 because Celebi had no Kenyan cargo business, so market shares at JKIA did not stack.