23:59 
Stanchart has formally disclosed that they will be disposing off their head office in town along moi avenue. i.e. StanBank house. Which is now housing Mr Price on the ground floor.
This is a material transaction as when the deal is closed could be worth a few hundred million shillings.
Here is the release.
23:43 Safaricom share price on a steady rise in the past few days.
Bloomberg reports that Morgan Stanley has revised its price estimate and raised it to 6.40 shillings from 4.80 shillings.
Their overweight position on Safaricom is bouyed by improved earnings, more penetration of M-Pesa and new broadband revenue streams.
Morgan Stanley estimates 22 percent group revenue growth in 2010 and a further 16 percent in 2011 compared with 12 percent and 10 percent previously. It also sees “room for positive surprise” on dividends.
In the past few days active trading on Safaricom’s shares has persisted and the price has steadily improved. Foreign demand on the counter continued to build accounting for over 99% of total value traded yesterday.
More on the Standard and Business Daily.
Previous periods performance of Safaricom here.
13:15 
Here is an older post with more details and below is the NIC IPO Prospectus.
NIC is currently owned 60% by IGI through Corporate Holdings Limited (CHL), and 40% by the GoU. After the Offer for sale, the shareholding is expected to be 60% held by IGI and 40% held by the general public and institutional investors, both local and foreign.
The Offer for Sale of 40% or about 161,552,000 ordinary shares of NIC of UGX 5 each at UGX 45 per share.
Opening of the Offer 12:00 Noon 31 December 2009 and closes at 05:00pm on 05 February 2010
Announcement of Basis of Allotment Criteria will be on 09 March 2010
Dispatch of Share Certificates and refund cheques to the Authorized Selling Agents is on 18 March 2010
Commencement of trading of NIC shares on the USE 25 March 2010
The offer gives NIC a Market Capitalisation of UGX 7,269,840,000 at the offer price.
More details in the NIC IPO Prospectus.
9:54 
Kenya Power & Lighting Company (KPLC) plans to restructure its share capital in Q1 of 2010 in an effort to strengthen its balance sheet and also enhance the affordability of its shares in the market.
This will include:
- Conversion of 87% of the 7.85% redeemable non-cumulative preference shares owned by the Govt into ordinary shares.
- Floatation of a rights issue where the govt will renounce some of its rights and trade them on the NSE.
- Carry out an unspecified share split so that the KPLC shares can trade at a smaller denomination.
Here is the complete press release from KPLC.
4:29 Key highlights of the period ended 30th Sept 2009.
- The active subscribers increased from 11.96M to 14.51M by 21.4% and around 77.5% market share.
- M-PESA now has 7.99M registered users almost doubling from 4.14M last year.
- Revenues hit Kes:40.7Bn from Kes:34.5Bn last year
- Data services which include SMS and M-PESA almost doubled to Kes:7.20Bn
- Profit After Tax hit Kes:6.63Bn from Kes:6.22Bn last year.
- Capital expenditure was down however to Kes:8.53Bn from Kes:10.04Bn last year.
- Bringing total capital investment since inception of Safcom to Kes:128.3Bn.
Concerns:
Increased competition from the other three mobile players and more data players, a challenging regulatory regime, persistently high inflation (reducing disposable income and increasing operating expenses), increasing power/energy costs, declining voice ARPUs and higher costs of funding as key challenges.
Opportunities:
Expect significant growth from data services and plans to continue spending aggressively on its network in order to maintain its market position and offer new voice and data (incl. MPESA) products.
Download here the complete release from Safaricom.
14:08 After the lapsed bid for Carbacid, both Carbacid and BOC Gases resume trading on NSE on Wednesday with much anticipation from shareholders.
BOC’s shares were last traded on 2nd Dec 2005 at a price of Kes:160 and those of Carbacid at 137 .
Below for more details and here are the financial results from BOC gases.
16:59 
According to these stats, Internet penetration is at 6.7% with Africa accounting for only 3.9% of the world’s internet users. Whats more Kenya scores fewer internet users than Sudan. Though we cannot ignore the fact that Sudan’s population is higher than Kenya’s and that their economy is also larger.
But hopefully these numbers will shoot higher if the promised reduction in internet access prices materialize eventually.
Anyway this means if am looking at starting an online business in Kenya my potential market is currently at only 3.4M and thats assuming full market penetration for ‘my business’. Now to put this into perspective, the same report claims that China has over 338M users and India has 81M.
5:38 The South African Reserve Bank left the Repo Rate unchanged at 7%, while the Kenyan Central Bank also decided to leave the CBR unchanged at 7.75%.
The difference here only being that South African banks actually benchmark the lending rate based on the Prime Rate which is 10.5% (Repo rate of 7% + 3.5%). While Kenya’s CBR is almost ceremonial and mostly just an indication of what the Central Bank would like banks to do as opposed to a market based benchmark.
The decision by CBK to leave rates unchanged was based on the impact of drought on Kenya’s economic performance and the slow growth in private sector credit.
Here is Prof Ndungu’s press release after the monetary policy meeting yesterday.
Updated on 29th Sept: Download the final press release from the CBK here, which has a detailed outlook of the Kenyan economy from the eyes of the Central bank economists.
5:21 
Kenyan tea prices have hit record highs at the past few week’s auctions in Mombasa on drought fears ahead of Ramadan, when trading in Islamic countries falls sharply and consumption rises but improved quality and overall tight world supply also contributed.
This demand is being driven by Middle East countries. And what’s more most of the tea offered for auction is actually being sold off at these high prices.
The average price for Best BP1s hit $4.03 per kg, up from a previous high of $3.97 reached in August. Tea offered at the weekly auction in Mombasa has fetched higher prices this year with buyers stocking up as drought in the world’s biggest exporter of black tea hit production. These prices are almost reaching the records of 1996 and 1997.
This might as well be reflected in the next financial reporting period of the listed tea companies. Which include Williamson Tea, Sasini Tea & Coffee, Kapchorua Tea and Limuru Tea among others.
Reason for the short-term optimism:
- The Shilling is still weak against the US dollar at about Kes 75-78 to the $.
- Tea prices at their highest in almost 10 years
- Increased Govt. investment in the tea industry.
More on this from Nation Media and Bloomberg.
6:57 
Engen, South Africa’s leading refined petroleum products company, and KenolKobil , the largest indigenous African petroleum marketing company in the East and Central African Region, have signed a sale and purchase agreement to jointly acquire all the shares in Shell Zimbabwe and BP Zimbabwe.
The acquired entities were previously operated by BP on behalf of the joint venture which marketed under both the BP and Shell brands in Zimbabwe.
With this transaction, Engen and KenolKobil have acquired the best developed assets in the oil industry in Zimbabwe, consisting of more than 75 service stations spread across the country, as well as several depots, located in Harare, Bulawayo,Mutare, Gweru and other major towns in Zimbabwe.
This seems a good move especially if the coalition govt. in Zimbabwe can hold it together and emerge as a better run country which would only mean an upside for KenolKobil and with this move now KenolKobil has a footprint in East, Central and Southern Africa Regions.
The acquisition is in line with KenolKobil’s expansionary plans, as evidenced by the recent entry into Burundi where they acquired from Engen in Burundi; Oil Burundi Limited.
KenolKobil was suspended from the NSE today as this transaction takes place.
Post based on KenolKobil press release to be found here from KenolKobil and here the softcopy for download.
6:33 Kuw
ait based Zain which operates in 24 countries and has nearly 70M mobile subscribers has signed a $13.7Bn deal, transferring a 46 per cent ownership of the company (Zain Group) to an Indian/Malaysian telecoms consortium.
The buying consortium is led by India’s conglomerate Vavasi Group and Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary, a Malaysian billionaire. This sounds like another name change is on the cards.
Its now not clear if the Zain Group is still interested in selling off its African assets as reported here.
Although separate reports indicated that the Zain Africa sale seems to be still on, but Morocco and Sudan businesses will not be up for sale in the Africa assets batch. Which after Vivendi walked out of a deal is now in talks with Reliance Communications of India.
But this will depend on whether these new shareholders are willing to let go those ‘valuable’ African assets, or prefer to reinvest in them and grow the businesses. More details here.
8:28
4:02 
Just thot today I should deviate from my usual posts topics; Btw today is casual friday, normally the first friday of each September where you buy a sticker for R10 around Kes80 and all proceeds go to the disabled, and you get to dress in casual. Being a banker this is a big thing. lol
14:31 
Plans are to be underway to unbundle CFC Stanbic holdings and potentially create more value for investors.
CFCStanbic is the holding company of: CFC Stanbic Bank Limited, CFC Stanbic Financial Services Limited, CFC Life Assurance Limited and The Heritage Insurance Company Limited .
This might be done by CFCStanbic offloading some of its shareholding in Heritage Insurance and CFC Life and listing these as separate entities, or even merging both and lisiting them as a separate general Insurance business.
The group plans to do this by offloading some of their stake to a strategic Investor.
Standard Bank Group the parent of CFCStanbic is the largest South African banking group ranked by assets and earnings and operates a financial services supermarket in South Africa, with interests in Insurance through Liberty Life and could possibly introduce it in Kenya by chopping up CFCStanbic, and reinvesting in them through Liberty Life.
CFC Stanbic was formed in June 2008 out of a merger of Stanbic Bank Kenya and CFC Bank. The entity is now Kenya’s fourth largest bank measured by total assets.
CFCStanbic bank reported a 5 percent rise in pretax profit for the first half of 2009.
While CFC Stanbic Financial Services reported a Sh51 million loss for the first six months of 2009 .
I will closely watch this transaction toas my hodling in this company have been under water for sometime now.
Find here the Cautionary Statement provided by the group MD.
And here for the Half year finacial results released recently.
Fact Sheet on Standard Bank Group.
Note: I hold shares in CFC Stanbic
6:15 NIC Uganda is a leading provider of insurance and risk management services in Uganda.
Established by an Act of Parliament in 1964 with the Govt of Uganda holding 100% of the shares.
In June 2005, the Govt of Uganda divested 60% of its shares in NIC to Industrial and General Insurance Company Limited (IGI) of Nigeria. IGI along with its partners formed an investment vehicle Corporate Holdings Ltd to take up the offer. The shareholding of Corporate Holdings comprises 85% IGI, while 15% belongs to a local Ugandan businessman Patrick Bitature and Erik van Veen a South African employed by MTN and paid over Shs 6.2bn (around $ 3.625M) for the 60% stake.
IGI is a privately-owned Nigerian Insurer and claims to be the largest privately owned insurance company in West Africa.
The Govt of Uganda retained a 40% interest in NIC which is to be listed as it fully divests from this entity. Part of this stake will be sold to NIC staff through a share ownership scheme.
NIC Uganda is listed in Class III of the Public Enterprise Reform and Divestiture Act. And in line with the Ugandan government’s policy of privatisation implemented in 1993, this firm should be fully divested as its considered non-core to Govt activities.
After the sale of NIC to IGI an agreement was signed in June 2005. For the government to divest the remaining 40% shareholding by way of IPO within the next 18 months. Which is yet to happen 4 years later. This IPO has been postponed numerous times, with the most recent being July 2009 after it emerged that the Uganda Securities Exchange has not yet approved NIC’s application.
The Merchant Bank of East Africa (MBEA) Uganda and Databank of Ghana are the lead transaction brokers for this NIC listing, if it eventually takes place.
More articles on this listing. UNAA Times and New Vision Ug.
14:57 KenolKobil has signed a Sales and Purchase Agreement to buy the entire shareholding of Oil Burundi S.A., which is owned by Engen International Holdings (Mauritius) Limited. Through the signing of the purchase agreement, KenolKobil has effectively established its sixth subsidiary outside Kenya, Kobil Burundi S.A., with the others being Kobil Uganda, Kobil Tanzania, Kobil Rwanda, Kobil Zambia and Kobil Ethiopia.
The newly-acquired outfit is the leading distributor of Lubricants in Burundi, supplying to several key commercial customers, and therefore provides an ideal platform for the company to grow the market share of its Kobil Lubricants brand. The outfit has also been engaged in the supply of white products to independent service stations in Burundi.
At the same time, the company has acquired all the three (3) service stations branded SONITRA in Burundi – two of them in Bujumbura and the other in Kanyaru, towards the border with Rwanda.
Prior to these acquisitions, KenolKobil has been exporting white products and lubricants to the market, and the new subsidiary opens up further supply opportunities through Tanzania. The Tanzanian supply corridor has in recent times been the most reliable and effective route that oil marketing companies have been relying on for supplies to Uganda, Rwanda, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo due to the Refinery and Pipeline and Storage unreliable distribution performance in Kenya, and is set to develop even further.
Owing to the KPC problems, limited capacity in the KOSF, non-availability of products in Western Kenya and poor performance of Kenya Petroleume Refinery , Burundi like others , has shifted most of its imports to Dar. In establishing this subsidiary, KenolKobil intends to enhance its use of the Tanzanian facilities to supply Burundi.
In this acquisition, KenolKobil completes its presence in the East African Community (EAC) trading block. Through the new acquisition, Kobil Burundi has acquired the rights to import, store and distribute products in the only depot in Bujumbura, SOCIETE D’ENTREPOSAGE PETROLIER AU BURUNDI (SEP Burundi) Depot. Kobil Burundi will further enhance the KenolKobil Group’s to the South Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, through the towns of Kigoma and Uvira.
As was the case in Rwanda which was established from scratch to a market leader with over 35% market share, the Group has a lot of confidence in its new investment in Burundi, and is on the look-out for more growth opportunities in that country, both through organic growth and through acquisitions and buy-offs when strategic opportunities arise. Here is the company’s statement to the NSE.
1:23 
Technology group Altech said it has acquired an 8.5% stake in the East Africa Marine System (Teams) data cable via its subsidiary Kenya Data Networks (KDN).
The 5 000km, $130m undersea fibre-optic cable project is being spearheaded by the Kenyan government and stretches from Mombasa to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.
The $11m investment by Altech KDN bought it a 10% voting right along with the effective 8.5% equity stake in Teams. Altech said it will fund its portion of the purchase price from cash reserves.
Said Altech CEO Craig Venter: “Africa is in the infancy stages of a sustained growth trajectory in broadband across multiple technologies, services and geographies. The acquisition of a stake in Teams complements KDN’s strategy of being a cross-border, Pan African network operator.
“Shareholders in Teams will be allocated cable capacity proportionate to shareholding. KDN’s stake will thus grant us access to additional bandwidth, provision for redundancy of broadband connectivity and significantly increase KDN’s service quality, all the while unlocking a wide range of additional services for the group as a whole,” he said.
KDN is 60.8% held by Altech. (Merali seems to have sold down his stake considerably.)
Altech said that, with terrestrial fibre laid in Kenya, Uganda and soon Rwanda, the acquisition of a stake in Teams is a perfect fit for KDN’s plans.
In August 2008, KDN became the first ICT company to construct a termination point at the Kenyan coast in anticipation of the landing of East Africa’s three international undersea cables.
KDN said its fibre-optic cable will connect the undersea cables that land in Mombasa to the rest of East Africa, creating a five-country, fibre-optic terrestrial network linking Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC.
Altech also predicted cost savings from the investment.
It said the price for satellite connectivity is $1 900 per Mbps per month in Africa, whereas the expected price for submarine cable connectivity drops dramatically to $90 per Mbps per month. This cost is anticipated to decline even further to $27 per Mbps per month by 2020.
-Courtesy of Fin24.com
Is Merali selling off most of his investments, he is now only holding a 5% stake in Zain.
Who says South African firms are not taking over and being successful in a few industries in Kenya.
14:39 
The new Complaints Handling Unit by the NSE was set up today.
The promise is that they will solve our problems and fast at that.
Investors now have a one stop point of reference to have their problems received and resolved quickly and efficiently. The Complaints Handling Unit (CHU) is centralised and automated system that ensures issues are handled fast. he Nairobi Stock Exchange(NSE) in collaboration with the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) and the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation (CDSC) have come together to make your stock market experience positive and problem free.
Log onto: [complaints.nse.co.ke]
Call: 020 2831000 Fax: 020 2224200
Here is the speech by the NSE chairman Eddy Njoroge during the Launch of Complaints Handling Unit (CHU).
Lets hope this initiative is for real and does not die out as investors start trickling back to the NSE.
All in all its a good step if all departments actually action the queries as people log them.
13:52 
The Central Bank of Nigeria has moved to inject N400 billion(about $2.5Bn) into five banks in the country following the decision to remove the CEOs and executive directors of the affected banks. The affected institutions are Intercontinental Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, OceanicInternational Bank Plc, Finbank Plc and Afribank Plc.
The CEOs that have been sacked by the CBN are Erastus Akingbola(Intercontinental Bank); Okey Nwosu (Finbank); Sebastian Adigwe(Afribank); Mrs Cecelia Ibru (Oceanic Bank); and Bartholomew Ebong(Union Bank). The CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who made this decision known this morning at the Emergency Bankers’ Committee convened by the CBN in Lagos, explained exclusively to THISDAY that the decision was being taken to safeguard the financial sector from systemic collapse.He said following the audit exercise conducted by CBN’s examiners it was discovered that five of the banks had accumulated margin loans of N500billion, among other loans, that had gone bad and eroded their shareholders’ funds.
“Some of these banks are quite large institutions and they have been mismanaged, so we had to move in to send a strong signal that such recklessness on the part of bank executives will no longer be tolerated.”He said the CBN had obtained the approval of the President to inject N400 billion into the affected banks to shore up their tier 2 capital to minimum acceptable levels.
Sanusi added that the funds being injected by the CBN was just temporary and does not translate to the government taking a stake in the five banks, as the interim management will be given a period to recapitalise the affected institutions, following which the N400 billion will be paid back to the CBN.
On how the CBN will prevent a run on the banks and create panic in the economy, Sanusi said the CBN intends to make it clear that the money being injected by the reserve bank as well as the decision to guarantee interbank placement should allay depositors’ concerns.The CBN, he stated, stands ready to ensure that no bank collapses in the country, but will encourage them to seek for funds to raise fresh capital and merge with stronger banks.He said an interim management and board for the affected banks will be put in place to run the institutions until they are taken over by new management teams and owners.
The Riba Take:
Margin Loans: Are loans given to investors to buy shares in the stock market, the shares act as collateral for the money borrowed. What went wrong in Nigeria is that the market which 2 years(or about that) back was among the best performing globally in terms of returns collapsed and at some point the govt even had to intervene by putting interim measure preventing shares from depreciating by a certain percentage within a day, almost similar to the margins we have in Kenya, but these were more stringent due to the nature of the collapse and the fact a very huge number of Nigerians were investing heavily in the market especially after the famous bank mergers and reorganization.
When the banks called on these loans people started defaulting and this downward spiral has taken its toll on these five institutions, but rest assured this is just the first group of banks, more will be disclosed.
A weird step the Nigerian govt had taken was to prevent banks from disclosing how much of margin loans they had on their books, thus further putting away investors especially in bank stocks and thus further depressing their prices downwards, and in turn more margin loans being defaulted on.
This step will definitely lead to a run on some of these banks, and a further downward spiral of banking stocks in particular which were the star performers in the boom times.
Lets wait as this story develops further………
12:57 
Zain have reviewed their pricing and also their strategy.
No data limit monthly fee has come down by 25% to Kes2,500 per month.
KDN has slashed their internet connectivity rates too, by 90% and are also providing a free trial period for their Wifi network; butterfly. More details here.
No changes yet in South Africa.
Initial post here.
14:11 
Kenya ranks number 2 on the Yahoo search engine soon to be powered by Microsoft’s Bing. Its the H. Clinton effect, they watch on CNN, have no clue which country that is, and they search…
Statement from KenolKobil