KenolKobil, Gulf retain staff after merger

The pair of KenolKobil and Gulf Energy have retained all of their staff members after the merger of business operations in late 2019.

The hold on the declaration on any redundancies on the combined 102 staffers’ base has been revealed in the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) conditional approval published on the regulator’s website on Tuesday.

According to the CAK, the pair of firms are to hold against declaring any of their employees redundant for the next 24 months while holding the existing employee benefits at constant.

Further, the pair is to honour all of its pre-existing contractual obligations with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to encompass all dealer owned and dealer operated service stations.

CAK gave its final nod of approval to the deal in December noting the transaction did not break laws on the industry’s competitiveness to see KenolKobil acquire Gulf for an undisclosed fee.

“Whereas the transaction will occasion the merged entity gaining the market leader position, it will not confer a dominant position,” noted the CAK.

The transaction announced first in early November created Kenya’s largest oil marketer by market share at 21.2 percent with Total and Vivo’s Shell providing checks and balances to the sector’s monopolization with holds of 16.4 and 16.2 percent respectively according to the latest data from the Petroleum Institute of East Africa (PIEA).

Combined, the two oil marketers have further strengthened their shares of the lubricants and LPG markets with holds of 10.6 and 13.5 percent respectively.

Gulf Energy Holdings Limited was a holding company incorporated in Kenya while KenolKobil is a whole owned subsidiary of the French based international Rubis Energie SAS having been acquired in March 2019 at a cost of Ksh.35.6 billion.