Sri Lankan conglomerate Hemas Holdings has completed its first major international acquisition, purchasing a 75% stake in Kenya's Twiga Stationers & Printers for $16.1 million, marking a strategic expansion into East Africa's substantial consumer market.

Hemas Holdings PLC has finalized the acquisition of a controlling stake in Kenya's Twiga Stationers & Printers Limited through its subsidiary Atlas Axillia Company. The $16.1 million transaction represents the diversified conglomerate's inaugural international acquisition and signals a deliberate strategy to establish manufacturing and distribution operations in East Africa's $136 billion economy.

The acquisition provides Hemas immediate access to Kenya's 54 million consumers and broader East African markets encompassing approximately 330 million potential customers. Twiga operates several established local brands including Kasuku, CrownBird, and Envoy, positioning the company as a market leader in Kenya's stationery sector. Beyond market reach, the deal creates potential synergies in product innovation, manufacturing efficiency, and back-to-school consumer segments between Atlas Axillia and Twiga operations.

Hemas Group CEO Ashish Chandra identified multiple challenges ahead for the newly acquired business. Supply chain management emerged as the primary concern, given the stationery sector's pronounced seasonality, with 65-70% of annual sales concentrated in a three-month period from November through January coinciding with Kenya's school term. Commodity price volatility for paper presents additional complexities, particularly amid regional economic pressures. Chandra emphasized that Atlas Axillia's longstanding procurement expertise would be leveraged to address these challenges.

Competition represents a secondary concern, with Chandra noting that mergers among competing firms have created stronger market players and prompted international companies to enter the Kenyan market. Additionally, Chandra highlighted that Kenyan government policies—particularly education subsidies and upcoming national elections scheduled for next year—could significantly impact market conditions, drawing parallels to similar policy dependencies Sri Lanka's stationery sector experiences.