Category Archives: CMA Kenya

Case Digest – Kenyan Capital Markets Court Cases

Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA), has published a digest of legal cases that Authority has been involved in, some of which were later appealed.

The 27 cases cover ten years, and most involve dealings at Uchumi while others revolve around executives and directors of CMC, commercial banks, and a handful of rogue stockbrokers who preyed on retail investors during the heyday of the Nairobi Stock Exchange during the IPO listings of Kengen and Safaricom.

Some notable cases include Solomon Alubala who was fined Ksh 104.8 million and barred from holding a position at a listed firm for ten years, Bernard Mwangi who attended Uchumi board meetings and sold shares while the company was performing poorly, CMA cases versus Jeremiah Kiereini and  Martin Foster, Chairman and CEO of CMC Motors, the CMA versus the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) over audits done by its members at CMC, cases involving Chadwick Okumu, CFO of Uchumi, and CMA versus Jonathan Ciano, a CEO who was for a time celebrated for turning round the Uchumi. They also have a case of Alnashir Popat and Imperial Bank directors, and Munir Ahmed MD of National Bank who the CMA fined Kshs 5 million and barred from holding a position at a listed company for three years.

The cases are published in partnership with the National Council for Law Reporting who have an online database of over 124,000 court cases.

BK Group – Bank Kigali Rights Issue and Nairobi Listing

BK Group, the holding company for Bank of Kigali, which is the leading financial institution in Rwanda, has launched a rights issue that will end with it cross-listing its shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

BK Group is floating 222.22 million new shares at Rwf 270 with a target to raise Rwf 60 billion (~$70 million or Kshs 7 billion) through a rights issue in which current shareholders are eligible to buy one new share for every three they own. All the funds will go to shore up the capital of the BK Group bank and its subsidiaries. Also, 7.2 million new shares will be allocated to an employee share ownership plan (ESOP) for eligible director and employees.

Incorporated in 1966, the bank ended 2017 with assets of Rwf 727 billion (~$830 million or Kshs 84 billion) and pretax profit of Rwf 34 billion. Its subsidiaries include an internet company (TecHouse), registrar, nominee, securities, and general insurance company. It has 79 branches and 2 million customers. It has an estimated 32% share of the Rwanda bank market, ahead of BPR 13%, Cogebanque 10%, Equity 8%, KCB 7%, Ecobank 6%, and a 4% share of assets each for both GT Bank and Access. 

In 2011, the Government had offloaded 25% of its shareholding to the public as the bank listed on the Rwanda Stock Exchange. It is still the major shareholder through two organizations, the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) and Agaciro Development Fund with 32.4% and 29.4% respectively. Others are the Rock Creek Group Dunross and Co Aktiebolag, Kamau Robert Wachira, RWC Frontier Markets Equity Master Fund, Frontaura Global Frontier Fund, and The Vanderbilt University – T133. After the rights issue, the top two shareholders will have 30% and 22.1% respectively with the ESOP having 0.8%. The government is not taking part but RSSB will partially participate to ensure their shareholding remains at 30% while other shareholders who don’t participate will be diluted by 25%.

The rights issue is from October 28 to November 9. It will be followed by a rump issue that will be from November 12 to 16 November in which shares not taken up in the rights issue will be offered to through a private placement to qualified institutional investors at Nairobi’s NSE.  Results will be announced a week after and the new shares admitted on the Rwanda Stock Exchange, with a cross-listing on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, on November 30. 

The target is 70% success with the 155.56 million being taken up worth Rwf 42 billion. In the event of an over-subscription, the rights issue has no green-shoe option and refunds will be done. In a statement released today, Kenya’s Capital markets Authority confirmed approval of the listing at Nairobi with an estimate that 40% of the funds will be raised through the rump issue. 

BK Group advisors are Renaissance Capital (Rwanda) as the lead transaction advisor, BK Capital – sponsoring broker and registrars, Trust Law Chambers as legal advisors, PricewaterhouseCoopers as reporting accountants, Bank of Kigali is the receiving bank and Hope Holdings are the PR & Marketing Advisors. The rights issue will cost Rwf 1.72 billion comprising Rwf 526 million transaction advisor fees and Rwf 900 million as placement commission (1.5% payment to authorized agents who are BK Capital, CDH Capital, SBG Securities, Faida Securities,  Baraka Capital, Core Securities, African Alliance Rwanda and MBEA Brokerage). Other fees are Rwf 90 million to the RSE, 39 million legal advisory and Rwf 22 million each for reporting accountants, receiving bank, sponsoring stockbroker and also for media and advertising.

$1 = Rwf  873, 1 Kshs = Rwf  8.58

EDIT Nov 23 results : Rights issue announced uptake was 43% with 104 million of the offered 222 million shares subscribed for, raising ~$31 million. And following the rump offer, by institutional investors, who oversubscribed for the shares and took up took up 136 million shares for ~$41 million, the total issue performance has been recorded at 107% and the new shares will list on Nairobi and Kigali exchanges on November 30. 

CMA Kenya launches University Financial Literacy Competition

The Capital Markets Authority of Kenya formally launched the 2018 Universities Challenge at KICC in Nairobi on September 25, which aims to equip young people with investment skills and nurture a culture of financial literacy and investing and saving for the future through participation in capital markets.

The 2018 edition of the Universities Challenge, which runs from September 25 to December 31, will feature 6,015 participating students from 37 local universities. They will go through five stages of elimination through testing their financial literacy and knowledge, starting with an online exam, followed by a stage dubbed a “scavenger hunt”, then they will make presentations at universities followed by presentations to CMA staff. There will then be a grand finale event in Nairobi where twelve top students will get to pitch to investment stakeholders, CMA staff and representatives of all universities in the challenge.

Speaking at the launch, CMA CEO Paul Muthaura, said that the average age of entrants was 23 years and that this was as a result of them targeting ongoing students and make them young investors because of the long-term nature of capital markets investments. Also that the use of technology was part of the CMA’s engagement process of expanding financial literacy as well as to transform the visibility of the authority through social media. He added that the CMA was in the middle of implementing a ten-year master plan and had won several awards for being among the most innovative market regulators in Africa.

The winner of the 2018 inter-university competition will get a grand prize of a Kshs 150,000 (~$1,500) portfolio of listed securities of their choice and the university where the student comes from will get investment textbooks worth Kshs 75,000 for its library. Three other winners will get fully paid 3-day educational trips to observe a securities exchange and capital markets regulator in Africa.

Participate in the CMA University Challenge 2018

What can shares worth Kshs. 150,000 do for your life? How about a trip to a foreign country?  How about rewarding your university with books worth Kshs.75, 000? And what about being a guru in investing in the capital markets?

This is what is at stake for the winner of the Capital Markets Authority’s University Challenge 2018. The Challenge is open for undergraduate university students in universities that have confirmed participation. Register for this Challenge from 8th August 2018 to 22nd August 2018. Check the CMA website and social media pages for further details on the University Challenge registration process.

Kenya’s CMA Targets Young Investors through a University Challenge

Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) will be holding a nationwide University Challenge as part of its education and investor awareness outreach program. The CMA team staged a chat last week on its Facebook page where its staff answered dozens of questions from young investors interested in participating in the Challenge, which is the second one in the series after another that was held in 2015.

Some excerpts of the responses during the chat:

  • The Challenge is open to all students interested in capital markets.
  • It is for individual young investors (over 18 years), who are enrolled at any university in the country and are in good standing academically (i.e. not on probation, or suspension at their university), and who must not be related to any CMA officials of organizers of the Challenge.
  • Once the university Challenge starts in mid-July 2018, the CMA which also has an investor education department will organize tours and barazas (meetings) with some Universities and will also have ambassadors at different campuses around the country.
  • The CMA Investor Education department has an investor education page on their website, a library for research, and also a unique resource portal for investors in capital markets to get information which is also useful to people who have graduated and are now outside of campus, but still interested in becoming savvy young investors.
  • The Challenge runs from July to November and students who enter will go through a series of online examinations, and the finalists will also get to give presentations.
  • The top prize is Kshs 150,000 (about $1,500) which the winner will use to buy shares at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). Other winners will also get a chance to travel and see how capital markets in other African countries work.
  • You can re-watch the chat on the CMA Facebook page.

Besides the Challenge aimed at young investors, other interesting and notable CMA opportunities include a sandbox to test bitcoin, block-chain, and other financial technology (fintech) solutions in Kenya.