Shareholders of REA Vipingo Plantations Ltd have approved sale of the firm’s land at Vipingo to Centum Investments Company as agreed upon in the settlement with REA Trading Limited.

This transaction was approved at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held at a Nairobi hotel. It now paves way for the conclusion of the buyout by REA Trading, which already holds 57 per cent of the sisal grower.

REA Vipingo Chairman Oliver Fowler, said shareholders had taken a decision on the matter and what now remains is for each individual shareholder to decide on the offer that has been put on the table by REA Trading.

“As a board, we have recommended, based on an independent evaluation that we commissioned, for shareholders to accept the offer,” he added in a statement. The approval comes weeks after REA Trading entered a negotiated settlement with Centum Investment Company Limited that had made a rival bid for REA Vipingo.

REA Trading Limited is offering to buy all the ordinary shares of REA Vipingo that it does not already own at the price of Sh70 per share, plus an additional cash top-up of Sh15 per share that it has decided it will elect to pay immediately after the offer closes.

“The offer will help facilitate diversification of the REA Vipingo business, which may require taking on greater financial risks than it has hitherto done. Among the areas we intend to develop into beyond the existing business is the field of energy generation, including the utilisation of biomass and possibly also solar,” REA Vipingo Plantations CEO Neil Cuthbert said.

Following the offer, REA Vipingo Plantations will eventually be delisted from the Nairobi Securities Exchange. The offer closes on May 13, 2015.