Category Archives: Kenya tea

Shares Portfolio May 2010

A rising tide lifts all boats

Tracking changes from three months and a year ago

The Stable


Diamond Trust ↑
Kenya Airways ↑
KCB ↓
Scangroup ↑
Stanbic (Uganda) ↑
Uchumi ↔
Performance: Portfolio is down 2% in value from February after exit from Safaricom which was about 10% of Portfolio, while the NSE is up 18% since February 2010
In/Out: Exited Safaricom completely, after accumulating shares since the 2008 IPO. One of the most liquid stock at the NSE, with lot of foreigner interest, and one I will buy back later
Increase/decrease: None
Best performer Diamond Trust and Scangroup, each up 23%
Worst performer: KCB down 6%

Events
Unexpected Gains/Losses
– Uchumi lifting itself out of receivership and applying for re-listing at the Nairobi Stock Exchange
– The communication spat pitting Safaricom versus the three other mobile companies, and another Scangroup buyout deal, both featured in this post here.

Other events
– The Housing Finance merger dance with Equity Bank here
– Another share split announced by Kenol Kobil (2nd time in six years)

Looking forward to
– Dividend payments expected from Diamond Trust, KCB, Scangroup, Stanbic (Uganda)
– @coldtusker says to watch kapchorua Tea at 140, Kenol at 93.5, Kenya Airways 56, and KPLC 185 and compare 6 months from now while Riba Capital is watching tea stocks, KPLC and Housing Finance.

Proparco in East Africa

French financier Proparco had a mini cocktail while their CEO Luc Rigouzzo was in Nairobi last week. The CEO, who grew up in Africa (Ivory Coast) talked about the group investments and potential they see in Africa, being real, not just afro-optimism statement.

In the banking sector, Africa with its 1 billion combined population has a potential urban population of 300 million banking customers, hence Proparco’ intervention in the banking sector as well as infrastructure sectors

Proparco with € 1.5 billion assets has 37% of loans and 26% of equity investments to Africa, and their loan portfolio at 2008 comprised 146 million Euros in east & central Africa, and 154m Euros in West Africa
Proparco invests in social, environmental investments for the public good and that transom poverty.

The consumer may not see or feel this kind as Proparco’s intervention is at a higher level with loans of € 5 to 30 million per project (over durations of 5 to 20 years) and up to to 100m in infrastructure, and equity of € 2 to 20 million (over 4 to 10 years)

Tea estate

In Kenya they have invested in Mumias sugar, I&M bank, Zain, Bank of Africa, Serena Hotels, KTDA) , NIC Bank, Rabai Power, Kenafric. Ormat (Geothermal), while Uganda has bugajali hydro power, DFCU, and in Tanzania they have Tigo.

Tea themed restaurant

Coming soon: The Kenya Tea Development Authority intends to open a tea themed restaurant in Nairobi similar to a java or starbucks that will sell branded teas and promote a quality tea drinking culture in Kenya. They will then roll these out in other towns and countries

Other opportunities

jobs

from the daily papers

Diagnostic marketing executives at Crown healthcare.

Interior designers at Design corporate. Apply to info@designcorporate.co.ke by October 20

Communications officer (CO/06) at Forum for African women educationalists. Apply through KPMG at esd@kpmg.co.ke by 27 October

Finance manager (C062-M31) at Githingo consulting . Apply to
Mailbox@githongo.com 31 October

Project risk manager and credit officers(s) at HFCK. Apply to human.resources@housing.co.ke by October 20

Assistant services manager and a Data manager at Homegrown. Apply to Hrd.NboHQ@f-h.biz by 25 October

Investment analyst at IFC. Deadline is October 20

CEO at the National Hospital Insurance Fund. Apply to hcapjobs@wananchi.com by 27 October

Training programs developer, Country manager – south Sudan, Business development executive, and Associates (facilitators/trainers) at Pinnacle training & consulting. Apply to recruit@adeptsystems.co.ke by October 31

Various jobs at Safaricom

HR manager at Softa Bottlers. Send applications to info@kuguru.com

Senior lecturers, associate professors, and full professors at Strathmore business school . Apply to Sbs@strathmore.edu by October 30

Human resource manager at World Wildlife Fund. Apply to Hresource@wwfearpo.org by October 27

hotel for sale
A 9-storey, 114 room hotel on Mombasa Island in the CBD with 3 conference rooms, restaurant, and 2 bars – formerly operating as Polana Hotel has now been put up for sale by the NSSF.

Weak Tea

Sister companies, Kaphcorua Tea and Williamson Tea, both reported losses for the six months ending in September 2005. Turnover was down by 8% to 206m at Kapchorua and by 13% to 526 million at Williamson and operational loss at both companies was 4m and 7m respectively. The loss before tax was 28m at Kapchorua and 53m at Williamson for the six months. The companies attributed the losses to oversupply of tea in the international markets and reduced margins caused by a strong shilling, with a warning that losses will continue until the shilling weakens. This follows a bad year for Sasini Tea as well.

Tea warning

With tea in abundance in China, more and more is being shipped abroad – and expanding sales by Chinese tea growers are causing alarm in other developing countries that depend on growing tea, like India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

In 2004, Kenya surpassed Sri Lanka to become the world top producer of tea with the her top 4 export destinations being Pakistan (23.2%), UK (15.1%), and Egypt (19%).