Private equity firm CVC is considering selling tea plantations which have been at the centre of sexual harassment investigations and demonstrations against tea plucking machines.
UK-based business publication Financial Times reported on Thursday that the multinational company was in talks to sell the tea farms it bought from Unilever last year, just months before investigations by BBC Africa exposed the sexual exploitation of staff by senior management.
The abuses and other legal disputes happened before the PE firm bought the operations from Unilever at a whooping Ksh718 billion(4.5 billion Euros).
This year, the farms also witnessed anti-machines demonstrations backed by local leaders who claimed the shifts were denying their constituent jobs.
The round of protests led to the burning down of tea harvesting machines, which saw many tea multinationals operating in the Rift region incur millions in losses.
According to the Financial Times, if CVC sale of the plantations goes through, the company will retain tea processing and selling of tea products under the Lipton and PG Tips brands.
The announcement of a potential sale follows a similar move by multinational tea firm James Finlay Kenya which sold its stake to Sri Lankan firm Browns Investment Plc in a deal revealed in May.
Insiders revealed that there were companies that had already expressed interest in taking operations from the company based in Luxembourg.
Multinational tea companies in recent years have had a conflict with stakeholders in the areas including unions, host communities, and local leaders.
In May, just days after the Finlay deal, riots in Kericho and Bomet saw multinational tea farms lose over Ksh170 million after days of violent anti-machine demonstrations.
The protests also affected large local tea farms which have in recent years been pivoting towards machines over manual tea pickers.
“The value of compromised assets as a result of these security challenges is estimated at approximately Sh50 million and an additional Sh120 million in 4.5 million kilos of green leaf,” Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA) chairman Silas Njibwakale noted in a statement in May.
