
Biodun Shobanjo chairman of the Troyka Group, a holding company of several large firms, with over seven thousand employees and with a turnover in excess of N20 billion ($167 million) per annum, will be the CEO (Trump) of Apprentice Africa.

Safaricom Bahaving BadlyIt's quite uncivilized for safaricom to perfom a system change that affects all their pre-paid subscribers and the only notice I've seen is on their I&M building 'closed' office (with no one to answer questions). The notice is even signed by Micheal Joseph himself! I hope the signature appended on that notice is just an electronic one and MJ did not participate in a such treacherous activity. Most their pre-paid subscribers are wondering what is wrong? Nobody is able to load units into their phones, send sms, send money through M-pesa or make calls. Somebody need to be fired somewhere, or we are suing!
Safaricom IPOThere are fears in the government circles that the current violence and unrest could result in lower returns from the planned public offering of Safaricom shares. The sale, which was postponed in December, is however still scheduled for the 1st quarter of 2008. The main fears is that that potential investors may be wary of buying into what is one of Africa’s most profitable firms. The success of this IPO will suffer both a broad and locally. The fate of the Euro-bond also hangs on the balance.
was shocked this morning to wake up to the news that newly elected Embakasi MP, Mugabe Were, has been killed. It’s very disheartening the way things are happening in Kenya. I don’t see the reason he had to die in cold blood. May God rest his soul in enternal peace.




II. Don't Lose Money
III. Learn to Value Businesses
IV. Know Your Circle of Competence
V. Demand a Margin of Safety
VI. Wait for the Perfect Pitch
VII. Make the Market Your Servant, Not Your Master
VIII. Invest for Absolute, not Relative, Returns
IX. Watch the Business, not the Stock
X. Know When to Sell

Service Delivery the Kenyan WayWritten by James Shikwati in todays Business Daily

Kestrel Capital (East Africa)
Ngenye Kariuki & Associates
Sterling Securities limited
Apex Africa Investment Bank.
Faida Securities
Bob Mathews
Rennaisance Capital
{For a Comprehensive report on Kenya's Financial Service Providers, write to editor@smartbizafrica.com}
Reblogged from Emerging Africa Capital.
Kenyans seem to have taken this phrase to heart and they are trying to get rich in the most unscrupulous ways. They are even taking it to neighboring countries. Like the recent shooting of 15 Kenyans in an attempted bank robbery in Moshi, Tanzania and the numerous robberies in Southern Sudan by Kenyans {Including the Ksh.100 million theft from KCB}. These has left me wondering are we all Kenyans a rotten society? Is there anybody who does clean business in Kenya and gets rich just doing that?
The NSE chairman, Jimnah, has come out fighting the allegations on Monday’s Business Daily that there was insider trading regarding the recently bonus announcements by Mumias Sugar Co. Ltd and EABL. I like the way he dismisses BD at the end of the notice. But I still don’t think that the NSE can completely steer clear from insider trading as he claims {just a lot of mumbo jumbo}. Even much more efficient bourses like the NYSE still suffer such allegations.
This IPO has been way over due since March, but will take place in September this year. Although it’s only open to Tanzanians, who knows we may find a way to beat them at their own game.NMB is a private company limited by shares with an authorized share capital of TShs.25,000,000,000 divided into 2,500,000 ordinary shares of a nominal value of TShs.10,000.00 of which 2,000,000 shares have been issued and are fully paid. It has 115 branches and it's the second largest bank in TZ ranked by assets. It is the principal commercial bank to the Government for payments nationwide.
In 2005 the TZ Government sold 49% of its shares to Rabobank Nederland, NICO Limited, Exim Bank and TCCIA.
Currently the shareholders of NMB are as follows:
The Government is planning to sell a further 21% of NMB shares through an IPO of which 5%will be sold to NMB employees.
The bank reported a net profit of USD 28 million for 2006, and paid out about USD 6.35 million in dividends.
The NIC IPO in Uganda has already been publicized in the local dailies so all I can do is outline the details. The UG government will be ceding its remaining 40% stake in the company after selling 60% to IGI from Nigeria in 2005.The timeline
• Aug-Sept: Due diligence ahead of IPO
The NIC IPO seems to have already started affecting some counters in the USE as I learned from this lady Blogger from Ug.
Safaricom IPO still on courseDespite the efforts to stop the Safaricom IPO firms have been awarded tenders to provide professional advisory services to the firm. Seemingly the zero bidders have been left out and the following consortiums won the tenders:
Watch listAccording to smartbiz Africa NIC bank and Access Kenya are the stocks to watch, while Kakuzi, KQ and Mumias are the stocks to be cautious on coming next month.

The Acquisitions
Todays Online ltd was acquired under the agreement that they will successfully transfer their clients to AK’s network. In that case an initial amount was paid and a future payment was promised based on the successfully transferred clients. Todays Online personnel were also to be taken in as AK selling agents.


"…… I believe a continent-wide stock market would be a welcome development for all involved. It would greatly lessen the difficulty of opening trading accounts in a dozen or so different countries and therefore would be great for any investor seeking exposure to more than one country. It would likely also have the effect of unlocking value in some companies that are listed in markets that tradeinfrequently (e.g. Swaziland, Ghana, Malawi) and could have the opposite effect in some of Africa's more overheated markets ( e.g. Nigeria and Kenya).So, how would a common stock exchange be brought about? There are a couple ways it might happen.
I think these are very good ideas that would help africa achieve the desired united Africa dream. East Africa is setting a good example for other regions to use as a blue print in intergrating their markets. What do you think of this?

The formulas
EPS
DPS
PE
Dividend Yield
Implied dividend yield based on the DPS for the period ended 31/12/2006: 2.63%
Other important facts & numbers
My conclusion
I hold a short term buy on this IPO and one has to be very careful with the amount to invest. The minimum application of 2,000 share {Ksh.19,500} will be advisable to avoid holding up your money in refunds. One thing that stand out clearly from the prospectus is the way the AM Best review of Kenya Re, that gave them a B+ {very good perfomance}, has been has been mentioned at every possible chance.


Note:
Prospectuses and Application forms will be available from July 18, 2007 {watch this space for a complete break down and analysis} you can also see a report on them here.
I'm told Qualified Institutional Investors (QII) are defined as a company whose ordinary course of business is to hold, manage or invest funds in connection with retirement benefits, insurance contracts, mortgage and saving schemes and any fund or scheme in the nature of a collective investment scheme or a unit trust. {in simple words they are the deal makers, the lead we follow}
QII will, for the first time in kenyan history, use the Delivery vs Payment where they shall only pay for the confirmed allocated shares (no upfront payment and chasing after refund cheques} For more storie on this check here, here and here.



1. East African Cables
After their split last year the share has been rather stagnant and was minimaly affected by the market correction of early this year. At the moment it has picked up and the management is restructuring to ensure profitability. they are already moving into new offices and have emberked on a thorough advertising scheme.
2. Access Kenya
After their IPO the price has stagnated between 12 and 13. most of the retail guys who got this shares are disposing and collecting their refund checks in disgust. and this is where the opportunity present it self. with this guys disposing off in mass the supply is too high making the prices to be lower than the intrisinc value. so once this guys have disposed and the prices move back to it true value which is higher than the current price, there will no turning back. it hit 20 before you can say AK.
3. KCB
This is the biggest bank in kenya in terms of number of branches and they are still expanding in other parts of East Africa. After the share split of 10:1 in march the shares have not been trading in the market until today. when they hit the market floor i believe they will be headed downwards and this presents a clear way for you to buy. anything below 20 is a sure buy. with the rentrenchment and management change the profitabiltity is also still looking good in the medium term. so i will also have this in my green list.
4. Equity Bank
this is the best perfoming stock in the market this year and things are still looking good. they are about to Acquire Housing Finance. the sooner you get on this train the better.

Yesterday the three east African countries read their budget together as a sign of solidarity. Below is just a brief analysis of what the three finance ministers talked about:
Kenya: By Hon. Amos Kimunya

