Monthly Archives: May 2012

Longhorn at the NSE

On May 30, book publishing company Longhorn Publishers listed 58.5 million shares at the Nairobi Shares Exchange (NSE) at a price of Kshs. 14 per share, becoming the 59th  company on the exchange.  While they are said to be the first publisher on the exchange, they are not the first new media /creative company at the NSE.

Longhorn is 35% owned by  Centum Investments and the current NSE MD, Peter Mwangi, mentioned how he had sparked the process of leading Longhorn to list when he was the MD of Centum (formerly ICDCI)  as he gad seen that the company which had good growth, business plans, and management could end up as a company that could list at the exchange.

Longhorn is mainly a school books publisher with school publishing interests in Kenya (government is the largest book buyer) , and has  subsidiaries in Uganda and Tanzania (never been profitable), and their titles are now distributed in Rwanda, Malawi, and the Chairman also some titles are now sold via Amazon Kindle.

Centum and the Longhorn Chairman, Francis Nyammo in total own about 79% of the company and have undertaken not to reduce their combined shareholding to below 51% for the next two years.

Idea Exchange: Global Voices, TED Fellows, Journalist & Travel Opportunities


The  African News Innovation Challenge designed to promote the development of digital media products and innovations is now accepting applications and winners will receive grants from $12,500 to $100,000 for the best projects aimed at strengthening and transforming African news media.  It is Sponsored by the Omidyar Network, Google, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Knight Foundation, U.S. State Department, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). More and entries must be submitted online by July 10, 2012.
The Big Picture Digital Journalism Project is an innovative new project that aims to strengthen African journalists’ capacities through training in the use of crowdsourced journalism techniques which aim to leverage citizen participation and increase the representation of local voices and perspectives through both traditional and new media channels. Apply here.
Global Voices Citizen Media Summit  will be in Nairobi on July 2-3, 2012 and a  couple of local blogger are invited to attend for free by  writing a blog post of 500 words or less on the How citizen media can help ensure peaceful elections in Kenya in 2012-13.  More and the deadline is  June 11.
Google Europe, Middle East, and Africa  (EMEA) Travel and Conference grants to encourage women to excel in computing and technology. These can include free registration to selected conferences and up to 1000 euros towards travel costs. More
   
The Prince Claus Fund welcomes project proposals for cultural initiatives in the fields of digital culture and new media. Apply by the Deadline of 17 June 2012 (via @itsbuddhablaze)
Rockefeller Foundation- 2012 Innovation Challenges Competition. Details
  
TED  
  • Apply to be a TED2013 Fellow, opening on  May 28.
  •  Share your idea for the City 2.0 — and  apply  for a $10,000 award to make it happen.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation  is sponsoring a Financial & Economic Reporting traning course in Kampala in June 2012 to help journalists in Africa to strengthen their reporting on financial and economic topics. More  and the application deadline is 31 May 2012 (via @uginsomniac) 
Young Innovators Competition – Your Innovation on a World Stage:  ITU, the leading United Nations Agency for information and communication technology is looking for the next generation of young visionaries for its Young Innovators Competition.  Details here

EDIT – UPDATES

East African media awards (site is down) open to practicing journalists in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda in reporting categories of  higher education, health, agriculture/food security, political, financing, environmental, and business reporting. Deadline is June 22.

Global Film Initiative: Grants of up to $10,000 for feature film projects in all stages of production.  More  and the deadline is July 16.
 
Hivos and VC4Africa:  Have a incubator award for 2012 with a top prize of $15,000 for the chosen  entrepreneur. 
 
Kwani? Trust:  The Kwani? Manuscript Project is a literary prize for unpublished fiction manuscripts from African writers across the continent and in the Diaspora with a top prize of  $3,500. More and the deadline is 20 August. 
 
Orange: The Orange African Social Venture Prize is meant to promote social ICT innovation with three prizes of ~$12,500.  More and the deadline is September 21.

Qatar Airways: Upload inspiring pictures and win return trip tickets as prizes. Deadline is June 30.

Don’t call out a Foul

As we wait for the results of the Kenya Aiways rights issue, it seemed to have passed without any investment banks or stock brokers producing any independent analysis and recommendation on it’s prospects. 
That’s not a 100% true as a Google search has found two broker reports on the KQ rights, one with a buy recommendation, and the other with  an underweight recommendation – which usually means that the security is expected to underperform either its industry, sector, or even the market. 
Still, it’s been almost impossible to get my stockbroker, or any other investment bank to share a copy of a report on KQ, or the earlier British American IPO. Yet a few years ago, most brokers were happy to share analysis (theirs, or from other brokers/banks) on Kengen, Safaricom, even Kenya Re. 
I discussed with @Coldtusker around the time of Britak and his view was that brokers don’t produce public analysis reports for shares that they don’t believe will perform well – They say nothing, so as not to be seen to endorse, or hype weak share sales to their insititutional or retail clients.
Is that the case? Are negative reports shelved in order to keep corporate issuers happy, and ensure retail shareholders line up and buy shares? So where’s a retail shareholder supposed to  get objective reports?

Mobile Money Tithing

Last week Family Bank announced the launch of a new product called M-Kanisa which allows church faithful to send their tithes and contributions to their Churches via mobile phone.  It works with Safaricom’s M-Pesa’s paybill and offers convenience and speed for church members who need to meet their tithing obligations to their churches or institutions.

For the church, it needs to open a bank account and share the paybill account with their congregation and the Church will also get Immediate notification via SMS when tithes and offerings are deposited into the account.

Another mobile money church service, discovered via Twitter, is ZionCell which works on the Airtel Money from rival provider Airtel. With this one, Church members can also sign up for insurance cover, receive daily devotional messages, health & financial messages and there are additional benefits of merchant account discounts and a Zioncell debit card. Their site appears to show that almost 3,000 different churches, affiliated to the Kenya Assemblies of God, and the Deliverance Church, are signed onto Zioncell.

EDIT From Swaziland, here’s a link to a story about a tithe contribution arrangement between MTN and two local church groups.

Shares Portfolio May 2012

Comparing to last quarter  and a year ago.

The shares market seems to have bottomed out and share prices have surprisingly, for an election year, began to go back up after a long downward period.

The Stable
Barclays ↑
Bralirwa (Rwanda) ↑
Britak ↑
Diamond Trust Bank ↑
East African Breweries (EABL) ↑
Kenya Airways ↓
Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) ↑
Kenya Oil Company (Kenol) ↑
Safaricom ↑
Scangroup ↑
Stanbic (Uganda) ↓
Uchumi ↑

Review

  • The portfolio, excluding new shares, is up 12% since February 2012 while the Nairobi Shares Exchange main index is up 14% over the same period.
  • Best Performer: Uchumi  (up 109% in 3 months), Britak (33%) Scangroup, EABL, KCB, Kenol (all +20%)
  • Worst Performer: Kenya Airways (down 20% in 3 months), Stanbic Uganda (due to exchange rate)
  • In: None
  • Out: None
  • Increase: Took up some, but not all of the Kenya Airways (KQ) rights
  • Decrease: none
  • Unexpected gains/losses: A buyout at Kenol of the majority shareholders was announced,  but the future for minority shareholders is unclear with the (under-valued) shares now suspended from trading. More Kenol deal analysis by Coldtusker.
Events/Outlook:  
  • Equity Bank’s James Mwangi lamented that more foreigners and hedge funds now see the under-valued shares  of the bank and are buying (now own 43% of the bank) more than local investors.
  • A fight between the directors of the Tuskys super market chain exposed the rapid growth of this unlisted company, whose turnover and profit of Kshs 20 billion was almost twice that of listed Uchumi, but whose profit of Kshs 245 million was about half of  Uchumi’s.
  •  Safaricom’s  full year results after a tough year 
  • With the high cost of bank funding (loan rates are still at +18%), Standard Chartered, East African Breweries and Total have all borrowed from their foreign parent companies for local investment and capital commitment.
Looking Forward to:
  • – Payment of the Barclays special dividend to go a long with final dividends from KCB, Scangroup and others. But it’s hard to keep track of dividend payments and bonus issues since the Nairobi Stock Exchange stopped sharing their daily free price lists.
  • Cautiously investing in Government bonds. Got a CDS account with the Central Bank of Kenya for bond trading, but with so many doing it now (it takes three weeks to get an application approved), it’s time may have passed.
  • Results of the Kenya Airways rights issue (May 30)
  • New listings from CIC Insurance, and Longhorn Publishers, but UAP have pushed back  their back their plans till around 2013 and indecisive Family Bank has again postponed a listing decision.