Monthly Archives: August 2007

Bank Sold

Name this bank?
The deal of the year brings together Stanbic and CFC Banks merge together and is expected to be finalized next month with only Central bank and CMA approval left.

The combined, but yet to be named, bank will have assets of over 55 billion shillings ($800 million), deposits of 43 billion, loans of 30 billion and a pre tax profit as June 2007 of 934 million ($14 million)

Mzalendo bank account
Commenting on the report on bank charges released this week, The Governor of the Central Bank called for a Mzalendo bank account which would probably be akin to mzansi from South Africa which is a low cost account at several banks (with wide branch networks – e.g. KCB, Equity, Postbank) that has similar features and charges at all the banks

banking is not cheap

A recent report released on the banking sector shoed that banking not cheap is not cheap for most account holders .

This should not be a surprise to the public who read about the bank profits or the authorities who are sent all charges and tariffs by the banks each month

There’s already been grumbling from research firms ho say a local firm could have carried out the survey and some banks who say the report is inaccurate.

Earlier, some advertised banking is unexpectedly not as cheap

Bank for sale

The Government intends to sell a portion of Development Bank of Kenya (DBK) to a strategic investor.

The goverment, through ICDC owns 90% of the Bank which was almost merged with Housing Finance in 2005.

DBK is Kenya’s 34th largest bank with assets of Kshs. 3.9 billion ($55 million)

Soaring Monday: Kenya Re opens above the FT Ghost

We are almost at the end of the month of August which Kenyans consider to be jinxed. So far national tragedies have included the annual floods in Budalangi and a village in Kakamega that was destroyed in mud slides, while Nairobi has had the occasional tremors continue since July.

Anyway;

lessons learnt from FT? The statutory manager of Francis Thuo Stockbrokers will begin paying off its clients (who had filed loss claims) from Monday 27th to September 7 – using money paid by new stockbroker Renaissance Capital.

This should not be the end of Francis Thuo and a comprehensive report and sanctions of the company’s management needs to happen. More so because, illegal selling of shares by brokers without permission of some unfortunate shareholders is still going on. Francis Thuo was not a robot selling shares. It had managers and staff who wilfully robbed shareholders of their investment. Has no investor reported them to KACA (even anonymously)? What’s more shocking is that the NSE wants to reward/gift the collapsed stockbroker with more money!

Kenya Reaffirms the IPO dreams of investors by almost doubling to in price on Day 1 after the IPO. The share price reached 18 shillings before settling at 15 – but the allocation to retail investors was measly 12%

Nairobi Wifi II
One drawback to finding a great hotspot is that you have to lug around a $500 laptop to/from parked cars in an anonymous bag – which you then wrap around your chair leg so it does not disappear. But an even worse situation is to arrive there and find that for some reason the network is offline and they can’t fix it till the next day.

Still it’s better than paying $11 an hour for internet access at a hotel, which is even more expensive than before. Ultimately the goal is to have home internet access which is a whole other story.

Here’s Safaricom ISP – in form of their new Bamba net service. It’s a plug & play USB modem which costs 6,000 shillings to connect and 2,000 ($28) per month for unlimited net usage up to 700MB then 10 per MB thereafter – and is available throughout Kenya

Parliament to scrutinize privatization: the Finance Minister has been ordered to gazette a privatization law passed by parliament. This will bring such measure under scrutiny of parliament like the Safaricom IPO, and (within the banking sector) – moves to privatize Consolidated and National bank, or anytime the NSSF wants to divest in shares.

KCB back to UK
KCB to reopen London branch to serve Kenyans living abroad.

KQ soars as Uchumi shrinks
Kenya Airways was ranked 99 among world airlines in terms of operations. And in the first quarter (April to June), the company results showed that with increased capacity (deployment of larger aircraft), they were able to carry 640,128 passengers (9% higher than 2006), but aircraft were less full owing to increased competition.

Meanwhile Uchumi has withdrawn franchise rights to Tesco who have closed their Uchumi branded branches (including the one at railways). from a KTN report

Recent grads can’t be MP’s.
Because the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) wants them to clear their loan dues before they can run for public office including Parliament.

Jobs on Offer
most from the daily papers last week

Anti-illicit trade intelligence analyst at British American Tobacco. D/L is 7/9

Central Bank of Kenya: head of procurement, senior economist(s), manager forex bureaus, financial analyst, lawyer(s), executive director – Kenya school of monetary studies. Apply to the director of HR P O Box 60000-00200 Nairobi by 6/9

Constituency development fund: account managers for 41 constituencies including Makadara, Kamukunji, Starehe, Kasarani, Embakasi, Langata, Likoni, Mvita, Limuru, and Eldoret south . women encouraged to apply and the deadline for applications to cdf@wananchi.com is 21/9

East African Breweries: Buyer, Group Head compliance, indirect tax manager, group tax manager, direct tax manager, finance director, head of supply finance (Uganda) business performance implementation manager financial accountant(inter comp account), head of group procurement, procurement controller cost accountant advertising & promotion analyst service delivery manager

Principal legal officer at the east African development bank. d/l is 7/9

Branch managers at Family Bank. d/l is 5/9

HLB Ashvir: audit manager, audit seniors (Mombasa). Apply to audit@hlbashvir.com by7/9

Private sector development specialist at the IFC. d/l is 10/9

Kenya Airports Authority: auditor operations, auditor finance, auditor information systems. Apply through Hawkins associates

Kenya Commercial Bank: manager in non-electronic fraud, and investigator – forensic services. Apply to recruitment@kcb.co.ke by 7/9

Macroeconomic and financial management institute of eastern and southern Africa (Zimbabwe): director debt management program, program officer – external markets & financial markets development, program officer – financial sector supervision. Apply to capacity@mefmi.org.

Chief executive officer at the Privatization Commission of Kenya to be created. apply through Deloitte at esd@deloitte.co.ke by 6/9

Website editor/content coordinator at UNDP Somalia (Westlands office). Apply to registry.so@undp.org by 7/9

Mid week mix

Fractions of Kenya Re
It appears retail investors will get about 12% of the share that they applied for – leaving a minimum refund of about almost Kshs 17,000 (of the Kshs 19,000) that they applied for. So on to step two of my plan my plan and wait for the shares to open within a reasonable mark up of their IPO price. This is also a reminder to do the same in case of a Safaricom IPO unless they offer a trillion shares

Salvation for investors
So customers of Francis Thuo will get paid from the windfall ($3.5 million) payment by new stockbroker Renaissance Capital. But this should in no way let other brokers and authorities off the hook as they had promised a comprehensive report on what went wrong at the company. And if no NSE investor has lost money since 1954, where are my Uchumi shares?

KCB elite
KCB launches Advantage banking, joining Barclays (with Prestige) and Standard Chartered (with Diva) as offering exclusive banking services for their high net worth customers.

Safaricom is not elite, but…
(i) It’s new in a million shilling promotion cuts of buyers of their low denomination Bamba 50 (50 shilling) airtime cards
(ii) Its EDGE service (internet access) has not been working for moist of this month.

New Bank, New Stockbroker (II)

Women’s Bank: They may not have been able to get special seats in Parliament, but women can count on having their own bank when the Kenya Women’s finance trust converts to a commercial bank, probably in 2008. Having a women’s only bank is a long-running proposal to address some of the challenges women face as borrowers and bank customers.

KCB has diversified into asset finance, a field dominated by Barclays, Diamond Trust, CFC and market leader NIC (which was a Barclays spin-off initially)

A survey ranks Citibank as the top Kenyan bank and finds that 3 banks dominate the country.

Renaissance Capital was all set to be the next stockbroker at the Nairobi Stock Exchange until Old Mutual snuck in and doubled their bid with an astonishing ½ billion shilling ($6.5 million) offer. That leaves Renaissance to have to buy into one of the smaller stockbrokers, some of who have been patiently waiting for a big payday.

In an unprecedented move, Kenya Airways postponed its 2007 AGM. A mail mix up is to blame, and to think how for many years shareholders heaped blame on Barclays registrars, but at least they got the mail part right. KQ this year was handled by the ambiguously named Custody and Registrar Services. 

Kenya Re fractions: Retail investors are not likely to get more than 200 shares apiece.

Communications
Safaricom ball: Having pulled out the rug from the Kalonzo Musyoka side with a party takeover this week, Raila Odinga’s next move was to step in front to halt the Safaricom IPO, which most investors can’t wait to receive (and which could be a vote winner).
– The Government has reduced the local ownership requirement in the telecommunications sector to 20% from 30% before. The 30% rule has derailed three ventures in the last three years and so far it appears the Sameer Group is the only local company to have invested more than 30% in any venture.
– Blogger Gathara points out another equally troubling aspect about the media bill.

Trade & Aid
Going to China: The Kenyan Ministry of Trade has opened a commercial office and posted a commercial attaché in Beijing, China.

CARE Cares: CARE has handed a lifeline to African farmers by turning down US Food aid.

Energy: The Olkaria geothermal plant to expand as a Mitsubishi consortium has been awarded a contract to add a 35MW plant for Kengen there

Tourism
– The Narok county council has stopped the development of Wasafiri tented camp on the outskirts of the Masai Mara but other camps are still being put up (read here)
– Fly540 to start flights to the newly reopened Wajir airport, Jetlink will start international flights (probably in the region), but the Kenya wildlife services have been refused a license to offer passenger flight services.

Upcoming
– Bioken, a new distiller factory in Athi River.
– New hotel in Gigiri.
– Three hills housing estate (6,000 houses) in Mwakinye, Mombasa.
– New casino at Nyali Cinema, Mombasa.

Opportunities

– Opportunities for artists from Nairobinow
– MD of the Kenya Film Corporation. Apply to info@filmingkenya.com by 21/8
– Transformation manager at the Kenya women’s finance trust. Details here and D/L is 30/8
– Join the Kwani sales team. Contact marketing@kwani.org
– Pan Africa Trust Fund: Chief Executive Officer, Grant Administrator, and Finance Officer. D/L is 24/8
– Business executives at the Standard / KTN