Missing the Kenya Airways Party

Diamond Trust 2008 AGM

Shareholder woes: My first AGM this year is that of ICDCI which was held on Thursday February 21 at the Safari Park Hotel.

Sometimes it’s painful to be shareholder and today was one of those days. I’m out of practice and forgot to check in early – and arrived at the Hotel at 11.m. sharp only to find a very long queue outside. It would have been better to be a proxy today as that queue moved faster. But the company had only four computer stations to register any of its 40,000 shareholders who showed up – and I didn’t get processed till noon after spending an hour standing in the hot sun.

The meeting was almost over and I was able to catch a few comments by the MD and the Chairman of the company:

- On property: they sold two buildings in Nairobi, but are going to invest in the real estate sector again – and develop a building on a plot in downtown Nairobi
- On Eveready: it has not performed well (for shareholders) but by going public they are now able to liquidate part of their shareholding
- On Rift Valley Railways – its long term investment, but they hope to get return on the investment within 4 years
- On company’s sustainability in these tough political times- aim to diversify regionally, to minimize country specific risk
- one shareholder complained about late delivery of the meeting invitations & company accounts (through the post office) and the Chairman answered that they are concerned about the cost of printing and distribution of the company accounts – they may print abridged ones in future and e-mail others or put them on their web site

Hot Button issue was the proposed name change of the company from ICDCI to Centum Investments: almost all shareholders who spoke, on the matter opposed the name change of the company – some saying old is gold, new name is not African and can’t be translated, they don’t want to lose identity etc.

The Company Chairman was at pains to explain when one director Mrs. Pauline Muriuki stood up and exhorted shareholders to approve the name change. She said the company wanted to differentiate itself from (former parent) ICDC, and also Uchumi and the Government – saying negative stories/Matope that involved these companies affect the ICDCI share price. She also mentioned that the shares allow the company to go international (will be listed on the Uganda Stock Exchange. She said other companies had changed their names to reflect their new identities and had succeeded thereafter such as Unilever.

She was clearly worried as the company had already put in place a multi-million campaign for the new name which was yet to be revealed (a launch dinner to be held today but unfortunately coincided with the launch of CNBC Africa in Nairobi and was canceled) - also the company had already printed out shirts and gift items for shareholders with Centum to take home after the meeting

Is there shareholder democracy? : The Centum matter was eventually put to a vote on the floor, and passed, but the Chairman failed to ask if there were any opposers to the name change. The matter should actually have been put to a vote (with physical ballots). But would it have mattered anyway (since directors - businessman Chris Kirubi and ICDC (23%) combined own 50% of the company’s votes). Still it was a warning that companies should not take shareholders votes for granted

Goodies: Centum branded polo-shirt, tote bag and calendar. The Hotel had prepared a buffet lunch that was bland, and the company may have been better off handing out packed lunch boxes as the shareholders were unruly as they queued for the gifts and food

For the first time in many years, I'm likely to miss the Kenya Airways (KQ) Annual General meeting to be held later this month – as I sold all my shares earlier this year.

It's a shame because attending one was inspiration for this site and the company's AGM's have been among the most colorful to attend.

From backroom drama played out before the public, to who’s whos' appealing for votes to join the board - next to activists, to inane questions, KQ has had it all.

KQ has always had a large customer base and so has had to tweak their AGM model each year for improvement – and that has served as a model for all the recent (over-subscribed) IPO companies like Kengen, Scangroup, Eveready and now Kenya Re to emulate.

This year KQ has moved from Bomas of Kenya which seemed to be a natural home for the event with it’s ample parking, large screening area far from venue where KQ would hand out packed lunch boxes and t-shirt at entrance (some shareholders would turn back at that point having achieved their target for the day), large auditorium (where some would eat right away), huge TV screen and even had a second spillover hall for other shareholders if the main hall got full. This year's will be at Kasarani gym (not stadium)

Anyway in the buildup to the event, what is the company saying?

- It carried 2.6 million passengers last year, but profits were down 15% due to increased competition and reduced aircraft utilization
- Turnover was up in all four geographic segments (Kenya, Africa, Mid East & Asia, Europe), but operating profit down slightly on all four (also they canceled Turkey route last week). 69% growth in Asia, 17% in Africa
- Aeropolitics; They are appealing to the government of Kenya to grant visas denied to West African country nationals – warning that those countries could retaliate in granting KQ routes, or those passengers may choose other more hospitable airline/countries.
- Double taxation: They are also lamenting that they are paying income tax in most African and Asian (except china) countries – while they also have to pay income tax in Kenya (Other airlines were able to force Uganda to stop this taxation last month)
- KQ has 4,154 employees and all jobs will be applied for online from this year
- Buy & hold shareholders: of the company's 73,000 shareholders, only 23,000 (32%) have immobilized their shares (enabling them to trade).

Appeal for writers
Any reader here, going for the event can please send in a report? Here are other (2005, 2006) KQ AGM reports to prepare with.

Other happenings

- Free newspapers: According to the NYPost, the New York Times is going to end its Times Select (subscription only) model for it's star columnists/Op-Ed pages. And when you combine that with Rupert Murdoch’s plan to make WSJ site free, what does that portend for other subscription based online newspapers and sites?

Saving our roads: The government is cracking down to
remove overloaded lorries from the roads by reducing axle sizes from four to three (or requiring the last axles on a trailer to also be a steering one). The move will effectively limit cargo capacity to fewer than 30 tones, down from the current situation where some trailers with 4-axles have been carrying up to 60 tons of the road. Good start to get road survival back on on track. But this automatically forces fleet owners to double their fleet size (and increases traffic on the roads)

Broke law : The Nation had a great story this week about lawyers quitting private practice to take up jobs with the government or corporate sector. Meanwhile a prominent law partnership has broken up

Jobs
- Cartoonists at the Nation. Apply to quickdraw@nation.co.ke
- KCB: relationship managers - asset finance, relationship managers - SME’s. Apply by 24/8 to recruitment@kcb.co.ke.

Nairobist is a great investment site with reports and charts like those in the business daily.

There as an investment report put out on Dyer & Blair that I was able to pull up from their site to read.

- They are also looking for a full time blogger - details here

- Anyone with a copy of the actual Kenya re prospectus, please email it to me? (investment bank analysis also welcome)

- Aly Khan Satchu, who used to post comments here, now has an occasional stock tips column in the Nairobi star newspaper. (His Web site)