Category Archives: DBK

Bank Review ’07 Part II

Small banks, range from $40 to $100 million

Showed an inability to grow as faster as the bigger bank, with few exceptions. Yet they are still profitable and reluctant to merge

The banks got a temporary reprieve when parliament shot down the government’s proposal that banks should have a minimum capital of 1 billion ($15 million) 3 years from the current 250 million shilling minimum’ but that proposal is likely to be revisited by future finance ministers.

35. (38) Fidelity Bank: Estimated assets 3.2 billion ($45.7M), profit of 45 million ($0.7 million) shillings for this quiet bank with little marketing activity but which was able to grow 40% during 2007.

34. (36) Credit Bank: Estimated assets of 3,300 million and profit of 120 million, for another quiet bank which grew about 15% in 2007.

33. (33) Middle East: Estimated 3.2 billion assets and profit of 80 million in 2007. However deposits and loans are down 6% from a year ago.

32. (35) Habib Bank: Estimated 3.5 billion assets and profit of 90 million, with growth of 12% from a year ago. Participated in the first Diamond trust rights first issue as a possible merger step.

31. (29) Victoria: Estimated 4.2 billion assets 140m in profit. Flat growth expect in loans and deposits (1%), but great in profitability which is improved by over 40% in 2007.

30. (32) Consolidated Bank: Estimated 4.5 billion assets, 20 million profit with the 30% growth from a year ago. There was public fallout between the MD and the board resulting in the board being fired by the Finance Minister. The Deposit protection fund (DPF) of the Central Bank plans to sell its 51% stake to private sector, and is likely to be found next year by private sale. A loss in 2005 makes the bank ineligible for an NSE listing and the owners the collapsed banks that form Consolidated Bank are likely to figure in as potential buyers.

30. (31) Equatorial: 4.7 billion assets and 90m in profit. The Sameer group bank Out-performed corporate big sister CBA growing by about 15% in 2007.

29. (34) Development Bank of Kenya: Estimated 4.8 billion and 200m in profit. Remarkable growth fro a development finance institution to record 45% growth in loans & deposits. Part of ICDC’s (Government) 90% stake in the bank is up for sale in 2008.

28. (28) Southern Credit: Estimated 4.9 billion assets, 80m in profit. 10% growth in loans and deposits, with about 40% growth in profits in 2007. Bank with a lady MD focus on cards

27. (30) Chase Bank: Estimated assets of 5.0 billion, and profit of 130 million. The winner of small bank awards, will open new branches next year and has set about achieveing a recapitalization target of 1 billion, through retained earnings.

26. (26) Giro: Estimated 5.3 billion assets, 70m in profit. With 7% growth in the year, It was supposed to be sold to state bank of India, but the deal is yet to be approved by regulators.

25. (27) Guardian: Estimated 5.8 billion assets, 45 million profit. Growth of about 15%

24. (23) ABC: Estimated 5.8 billion assets, 170 million in profits. With 12% growth from a year ago, ABC was one of the few ‘small’ banks that had a marketing push to target new customers in 2007 in addition to a recapitalization drive. Launched ‘kisima’ a flat fee account and has new branches.

23. (24) Habib AG Zurich: Estimated 6.1 billion assets, 200 million profit for another quiet bank which grew about 15% in 2007.

22. (25) K-Rep: Estimated 7.2 billion assets, 200 million profit . With international shareholding and micro-finance expertise is an natural candidate for a merger Was 29th two years ago and recorded about 60% growth in 2007.

21. (21) Bank of Africa 7.2 billion ($103 million) assets 160 million shillings ($2.3 million) profit in 2007. What is hopefully the first of many West African banks spreading eastwards has opened new branches and targeted growth of new business like asset finance.
ddia

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)

Midweek Mix

Health care package for low income Kenyans
AAR, Kenya’s largest HMO has linked with K-Rep Bank to offer in a pilot project to provide health care to low-income groups.

Media blamed for undermining bank merger
HFCK say that leakage of documents portrayed them as using underhand methods to secure a deal with DBK

Two perspectives on life in Nairobi
Eastleigh Estate in Nairobi is like Mogadishu because of wealthy Somali residents while Asians profess that they are ”Kenya Damu”

End of the Yellow Jackets
The Nairobi City Council is progressing towards a system that will privatise the management of parking spaces (on and off the street) in Nairobi

Ship refuses to sail away
Assurances to the Treasury by the Chief of General Staff, General Joe Kibwana, about a 4.1 billion Kenya Shilling (US$53.5 million) deal to buy a new patrol boat for the Navy have turned out to be misplaced, according to documents seen by Africa Confidential.

Corporate Brief’s

Barclays
The whole saga of the Matiba schools vs. Barclays is spinning out of control. Current MP’s and former MP’s have stepped up and urged the government to tame rogue foreign banks that are destroying Kenya entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, over the weekend, threats were made to Barclays and staff working for the receiver manager of the schools. Hopefully these are just prank calls.

HFCK
Al is well or not well with Housing Finance’s proposed merger with Development bank (DBK) .It appears that, not only is DBK management opposed to the deal, but also Central Bank of Kenya which now also wants to remove the managers of HFCK

Central Bank
Meanwhile deputy governor Sambili’s term is coming to an end. The office comes with security of tenure.

Econet
According to Ministry of Information PS, James Rege, Econet will not be allowed to operate in Kenya because it has only paid $15 million of the $27 million license fee. This was on KTN, but after attending a few functions and seeing some wild news coverage, I’d like to see the actual remarks, and the context in which he made them.

Telkom
Telkom will lay off 12,000 of its 18,000 workers. This will save 400 million shillings a month – Telkom earns 1.2 billion shillings a month, but half of that goes to salaries (according to media reports on Monday). The company has about 250,000 lines, and according to PS Rege, a Senegalese telephone operator serves the same number of lines with just 2,000 employees.

Bank Round-Up

National Bank of Kenya
NBK’s net profit went down from 404 million to 383 million, mainly as a result of increased provision for bad debts – the bank provided 1.7 billion, up from 1.6 billion in 2003. The Bank has so far provided for 12 billion of its 17 billion bad debts portfolio.

The main component of their profit was an increase in foreign exchange income from 92 to 274 million. During the year loans to customers increased from 21 to 24 billion, and customer deposits increased from 20 to 22 billion. It is still not an efficient Bank – given that with assets of 30 billion, it only returned a profit of 300 million – and still can’t pay a divided as it must re-coup its losses of previous years first. The Bank received capital from the Government of 500 million, but has zero shillings in government securities. Shares in NBK are trading at 19 shillings (in the last year, low has been 13, & high has been 36 shillings) on the Nairobi Stock Exchange.

Transnational Bank
The most unusual result comes from TNBL where after tax profit increased 10X from 118 million to 1.04 billion in 2004. Customer deposit s more than doubled, from 523 million to 1.2 billion, while loans increased from 685 to 876 million. The staggering profit comes from other income of 837 million during the year – probably a write back as someone paid of a big political loan that had been written off.

Fina Bank
Fina is the only major bank, so far, to declare a loss for the year ended (42 million, down from a 75 million profit in 2003). The main component of the loss was an increase provision for bad debts from 88 to 205 million. Also staff costs and operating expenses increased by 33 and 50% respectively (both at about 130 m), while deposits and loans remained relatively unchanged at 5 and 2.6 billion respectively.

Stanbic
Standard Bank of South Africa, which was the only major bank to declare a loss in 2003 (104 million), turned things round in 2004 to return a profit of 118 million. It appears to have been saddled with some unprofitable loans in 2003, because in 2004, interest income increased from 183 to 368 million. Also it reduced is investment in government from 3.1 to 1 billion during the year, and shifted the funds to customer loans, which went up from 4 to 7 billion at the end of 2004; however deposits remained flat at 8 billion.

Development Bank of Kenya
DBK which is going to merge with HFCK, had a reduced profit during the year of 65 million, down from 92 million in 2003. Customer deposits decreased from 613 to 469 million. The bank which is supposed to be a development finance institution, doubled its investment in government securities from 646 million to 1.2 billion