Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Access Kenya Group Ltd., the country’s only publicly traded Internet company, advanced the most in more than two months in Nairobi trading after it said year-end customer targets had been met almost two months earlier than expected.

The shares climbed as much as 5 shillings, or 2.5 percent, to 20.5 shillings as of 12:50 p.m. local time. The advance is the most since Sept. 3 and the share price is at its highest level since Sept. 29.

The company said it signed up 3,000 customers to its residential broadband service, and more than 3,100 to its corporate broadband service, according to an e-mailed research note by Renaissance Capital.

“The residential broadband subscriber base is already 7-8 percent ahead of our 2009 forecast and the company’s 2009 expectations,” said Alexander Kazbegi and Ivan Kim, Moscow-based analysts with RenCap.

Telecommunications companies in Kenya are investing in expanding Internet offerings because fewer than 6 percent of Kenyans have access to online services. Kenya is linked to an undersea fiber-optic cable belonging to Seacom Ltd., a Mauritian company, and will connect to another two cables by next year to increase Internet availability.

The arrival of the cables will benefit Access Kenya as international bandwidth increases and the cost of Internet use declines, according to RenCap.

The brokerage on Oct. 22 put a “buy” recommendation on Access Kenya with a price target of 25 shillings.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ana Monteiro in Johannesburg on amonteiro4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 10, 2009 06:28 EST