PwC has received offers for carbon credits held by collapsed clean cooking business Koko Networks, but considers the prices too low to deliver a worthwhile return to creditors. The inventory was listed at about KES 47.2 million in the UK company’s statement of affairs.
The administrator, which manages an insolvent company’s affairs and seeks to recover money from its assets, held discussions with three potential buyers and five brokers. Its latest progress report says no sale had been completed by the report’s date, 17th September 2026. PwC has engaged a broker and will continue marketing the credits for a better price.
That leaves another asset unresolved in an administration where PwC already expects no payout to unsecured creditors, the people and businesses owed money without security over particular assets or preferential status.
The figures concern Koko Networks (UK) Limited, the company that sold carbon credits generated by the group’s Kenyan cooking-fuel operations. They should be read separately from the accounts of Koko’s Kenyan business and other group companies.
Why the carbon credits mattered to Koko
Koko supplied bioethanol cooking fuel as an alternative to charcoal and kerosene. A carbon credit is a tradable unit representing one tonne of carbon dioxide, or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases, reduced or removed. Koko’s clean cooking operations generated credits that the UK company sold to help subsidise the group’s products and operating costs.
For households, carbon revenue helped keep the cost of cooking down. For Koko, that meant its finances depended on access to buyers willing and able to pay for the credits.
Earlier this year, we explained the carbon-authorisation dispute behind Koko’s collapse. PwC’s account of the insolvency says Kenya had not granted the approval needed for sales into compliance markets, where buyers use eligible credits to meet regulated emissions obligations. That prevented the UK company from selling existing and newly generated credits at premium prices.
The Kenyan operations entered insolvency proceedings on 1st February 2026. The UK company followed on 19th February.
PwC’s assessment is that the offers for the remaining credits would not generate “a meaningful return to the estate”, meaning the assets and money being administered for creditors. The report gives neither the amounts offered nor the price PwC would accept.
The assets are worth less than their book value
The statement of affairs signed on 13th March 2026 recorded unsecured, non-preferential claims of GBP 127.17 million, or about KES 21.83 billion. The asset schedule lists both accounting values and estimated recoveries.
The assets had a book value of GBP 1.46 million, or about KES 249.8 million. Their estimated recoverable value was GBP 356,067.73, or about KES 61.1 million. Much of the difference came from money owed by Koko’s Rwanda company, which had a book value but no estimated recovery in that schedule.
The carbon inventory itself was listed at GBP 274,992, or about KES 47.2 million, in both columns. PwC’s difficulty selling it shows that this estimate has yet to translate into cash.
The newer progress report says recoveries are expected to be too small for a distribution to unsecured creditors. Some employee claims may receive support through a separate funding arrangement, but PwC distinguishes those payments from distributions out of the UK company’s assets.
PwC is also monitoring a joint sale process for intellectual property owned by several Koko companies. If it succeeds, legal advice will be needed to determine whether the UK company is entitled to any proceeds.
For creditors, the remaining uncertainty is how much these recovery efforts can produce. Even selling the carbon inventory at its listed value would equal roughly 0.22% of the March unsecured claims, before costs or creditor priorities. A better offer would help, but the figures leave very little prospect of those creditors recovering anything close to what they are owed.
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