Convex Commodity Merchants placed under PwC administration after Stanbic loan fight

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Nairobi commodity trader Convex Commodity Merchants Limited has been placed under administration, with two partners from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) taking control of its assets and affairs.

A notice in the Kenya Gazette of October 16 says Muniu Thoithi and George Weru of PwC were appointed joint administrators with effect from October 7, 2026. The notice does not say who appointed them.

“With their appointment, the Administrators shall now take control over the assets and the management of the affairs of the Company. By virtue of the Administration, the powers of the directors of the Company in terms of dealing and/or transacting with the Company’s assets have ceased,” the notice reads.

The administrators say they are engaging the company’s key stakeholders. Under the Insolvency Act, administration aims to rescue a company as a going concern where possible, or to get creditors a better outcome than they would get in a liquidation.

The refinery loan

The appointment follows a long dispute with Stanbic Bank Kenya over financing for an edible oil refinery. Court rulings on Kenya Law set out the background.

Convex told the High Court that edible oil made up 30 per cent of its trading business and that it decided to build a local refinery, financed by Stanbic under an offer letter dated December 9, 2020. It said the bank delayed disbursements, forcing it to divert money from its trading and logistics operations, and that Covid-19 disrupted construction.

In June 2023, Garam Investments Auctioneers served a notice to sell the processing plant and its machinery over a debt it put at KSh2.074 billion and $15,795.89. Convex, its sister firm Convex Commercial Logistics and James Waithaka sued to stop the sale.

The company argued the plant had been undervalued. A valuation by Axis Real Estate in April 2023 put its market value at KSh1.696 billion and its forced sale value at KSh1.272 billion, while Turner and Townsend had valued it at KSh5.465 billion in July 2022, when it was still being built. Convex also said it had secured KSh500 million from the Kenya Development Corporation and was negotiating an $18.47 million facility with a US lender to take over the Stanbic debt.

The bank said it had restructured the loans into a single facility of KSh1.54 billion in November 2022, which Convex failed to repay, and that the balance had reached KSh2.04 billion by June 20, 2024.

Courts side with the bank

On July 3, 2025, Justice Alfred Mabeya dismissed Convex’s application for an injunction, noting that it had not denied taking the loan or defaulting on it.

The company then went to the Court of Appeal, where its lawyer said the aim was to stop an auction scheduled for the next day. On September 8, 2025, a bench of Justices Wanjiru Karanja, Kathurima M’Inoti and Weldon Korir dismissed that application. The judges said the debt was not disputed and that the main complaint, the valuation, could be compensated with damages if Convex won its appeal.

Public court records do not show whether the auction went ahead.

What creditors should do

The notice asks that all operational and other matters concerning Convex be directed to the joint administrators or their representatives at PwC in Nairobi. It is dated October 8, 2026.

Administration is one of the rescue tools in the Insolvency Act, 2015. Other firms have ended up in the courts over unpaid claims this month, including state-owned power transmitter Ketraco, which faces a liquidation petition over a KSh10 billion award.