Pevans East Africa CEO Ronald Karauri. FILE |
SportPesa gaming brand owned by Pevans East Africa Limited was sold for £100,000 (Sh14.7 million) in June this year to Sportpesa Global Holdings Limited in the UK, creating conflict among the founders.
Pevans East Africa, the owner of the SportPesa trademark, approved an agreement on June 2 to sell the brand to UK-based Sportpesa Global Holdings Limited.
Pevans and Sportpesa Global have the same directors and shareholders but all clashed on the brand transfer.
However, Pevans CEO Ronald Karauri signed the agreement on behalf of the firm.
Later, it emerged that Mr Karauri had 54.4 per cent stake in Milestone Games Limited, the company that was afterwards assigned the right to use the SportPesa trademark in Kenya by Sportpesa Global in a backdoor deal.
Mrs Kalina Karadzhova, a Bulgarian national and a resident of the Isle of Man signed the deal on behalf of Sportpesa Global she is a director.
Kenyan entrepreneurs Paul Wanderi Ndung’u and Asenath Maina, who own a combined 38 per cent stake in Pevans, accuse Mr Karauri and the foreign investors of barring them out of the firm’s management and strategic decisions since 2017.
“In fee of the sum of £100,000, the assignor hereby assigns to the assignee absolutely with full title guarantee all its rights, title and interest in and to the trademarks,” the agreement says.
“Any payments to be made to the assignor under this clause shall be set off against any amounts owed by the assignor to the assignee or any other member of the assignee’s group to the extent possible.”
However, it is not clear if Pevans received payments or if its liabilities to Sportpesa Global were settled in the process.