Kenyan tycoon to invest billions to buy Forbes

Businessman Julius Mwale and founder of Mwale Medical and Technology City in Butere has been named among investors buying Forbes at Sh109 billion.

US publication Axios reported that US technology billionaire Austin Russell was a leader of the consortium that raised money for 82 per cent of Forbes ownership.

Mwale is also investing billions of shillings in the US media giant. Last month he attended Forbes Under 30 Summit in Botswana where he was the keynote speaker.

The Forbes profile of Mwale on the summit's website outlines his success as an industrial entrepreneur and investor with vast experience of more than 20 years in innovative investments in technology, energy, health, retail, and construction industries.

He is currently the Principal of the $2 billion MMTC in Western Kenya.

As the lead investor of MMTC, Mwale invested and mobilised over $2 billion to build the new city with a 100 per cent green concept.

The city is anchored by Hamptons Hospital which has been providing health care services to Kakamega county residents since 2019.

In his speech at the Forbes Under 30 Summit Africa, Mwale emphasised the need for job creation and poverty reduction in Africa.

"In 20 years, Africa is going to have about a quarter of the global population. We see ourselves being able to move about 800 million people on the continent out of poverty by creating jobs," he said.

Mwale said opportunities available in Africa brought about by the Africa Free Trade Agreement will make the continent a development leader by 2043. Russell, a 28-year-old American CEO of electric vehicle tech company Luminar Technologies, plans to put in $10 million of his own money as part of his bid to buy 82 per cent of Forbes for $656 million.

The rest is almost all coming from foreign investors, Axios reported.

Other partners include Global Silicon Valley (GSV), a Silicon Valley-based investment firm, Sun Group, a conglomerate from India, which will invest between $200 million and $300 million.