Nairobi — Three and a half years ago, Uchumi Supermarkets collapsed after a stint of incompetent steerage by its board and managers. As a result, the supermarket chain, once the pride of the post-Independence Africanisation process, hogged the limelight for the wrong reason.

Naturally, the supermarkets chain was de-listed from the Nairobi Stock Exchange and put under statutory management. With State aid, it has since made strides towards emerging from the collapse.

In fact, today, it has become a major competitor in the retail market, with an annual turnover of Sh8.2 billion and a pre-tax profit of Sh169 million.

The recovery process culminated in an announcement on Wednesday that its shareholders would be asked to approve measures that would lift the receivership.

This entails converting some of the government debt into equity, and restructuring the loan owed to PTA Bank and Kenya Commercial Bank.

Undeniably, increasing State ownership translates into a dilution of the public float previously trading at the NSE. And depending on the proposals for restructuring the bank loans, the creditors could be presented with choices they may not like.

However, all the parties, including the owners, have no option but to pull the firm out of receivership and propel it back to the NSE, otherwise the shareholders will keep holding shares they cannot trade for a long time.