M-KOPA Response: Correcting False and Defamatory Information in Chad Larson’s Public Complaint to the CMA

Mr. Larson’s letter to the CMA, which he has purposely posted on social media, contains baseless allegations. The transaction referred to in the letter relates to private shares sales in a UK company between willing third-party buyers and sellers that do not  fall under Kenyan CMA regulation. These are the same allegations Mr. Larson raised in the suit he has since withdrawn from the Courts

He implies that the transaction was purposefully undervalued and that the company should be valued at more than USD 10 billion, equivalent to the combined value of the two largest companies on the Kenya stock exchange – clearly a fanciful claim with no basis in reality.    

Our equity raises have been managed by leading financial advisers with outreach to hundreds of global investors.  Our valuations have been set through arm's length negotiations and supported by independent fairness opinions. Each of our last investment rounds has been co-led by institutional third-party buyers who were not equity investors in M-KOPA at the time of their investment. Through these efforts, we are proud to have achieved a valuation among the top of the range for African fintechs.  

His claims that Kenyans were targeted with low-priced offerings is false.  In fact, Kenyan employees participated in the same transparent and fairly-priced transaction that dozens of non-Kenyan and institutional investors also participated in.  

The allegations related to corporate governance, transparency and discriminatory shareholder rights based on race or nationality are strenuously denied and we believe have been made as part of a deliberate attempt to smear the Company.  All transactions have been completed in compliance with UK corporate governance requirements.  

Selling shareholders (including those in Kenya) were given multiple opportunities to attend company presentations to receive updates about the performance of the Company and the terms of the transaction.  

His claims that the Company suppressed communication are also false. The terms of the transaction by their nature were confidential (as is standard).  Mr Larson has deliberately cherry-picked from a set of non-legally binding FAQs that were designed to be helpful to selling shareholders. As outlined below, we held numerous sessions to answer questions and encouraged each individual to seek their own advice in those same FAQS and even gave the names of two firms providing advisory services to facilitate this process.  

Mr. Larson’s letter to the CMA is plainly another attempt to try to tarnish M-KOPA’s reputation after having consistently failed in the Courts. We are prepared to exercise our full legal rights to protect this business, our people, and the truth.

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