Monthly Archives: August 2005

Year ends in June for some

Uchumi
Just two days after closing the register to commence a rights issue, Uchumi issued profit warning indicating that profits will fall short of previously expected levels or losses will be larger than expected for their year which ended on June 30 2005.

Portland Cement
The nationwide housing & building construction boom combined with the availability of constituency development funds led to an after tax profit of 608 million at the East African Portland Cement. But turning a foreign currency loss of 638m 04 to a 200m shilling gain in 2005 is the main reason for shareholders to be happy for their Kshs 2.50 dividend.

Banks
Banks must publish their half-year results by August 31 and so far the top banks are as follows, with CBA, CFC, Imperial, Paramount, HFCK and Stanbic and Universal still waiting for the deadline.

Six-month results:
Bank (profit before tax in millions of shillings)
Barclays 2,103
Stanchart 1,618
KCB 859
Citibank 574
NBK 432
Coop 380
Equity 233
I&M 208
NIC 193
Baroda 163

Others
Mumias will announce their annual results tomorrow, after which will come results from East African Breweries and ICDCI

Good Sports News Day

Cricket
An Indian newspaper reports that Kenya may be among six countries that could start playing one-day international cricket by the end of the year against Test Nations to give them more international exposure.

Soccer
Even though spectators will be barred from attending the Kenya vs. Tunisia World Cup qualifier, the match will be shown on Super Sport (confirmed: Saturday 03 September 15:45 – 18:00 SS3) and perhaps on NTV or KBC.

Motor Rallying
The 2006 Kenya Safari rally will be held in March 2006. It will be classified as a round of the African Rally Championships (ARC), and if successfully and profitably staged, could lead to the Safari being a World Rally Championships (WRC) event in 2008.

Where to buy Shares

These are the results of an informal research survey on stock brokers. It is the by-products of three different queries on information; one from a friend who asked me where to buy shares, second from Omani who had asked me to compare the various stockbrokers and third was a request from Afromusing who had asked how one could buy NSE shares while living in the US.

One first needs to open a CDS account which is free; by filling and signing a CDS 1 form, and providing two passport size photographs and a copy of your ID/Passport. The CDS 1 forms are available at all stockbrokers and can usually be mailed to applicants upon request.

Here are the survey results in reverse order:

E-mail not working
Ashbhu Securities Ltd. Finance House, 10th Floor, P.O. Box 41684 Nairobi Tel. 210178/212989 Fax. 210500 E-Mail: ashbhu@net2000ke.com

Nyaga Stockbrokers Ltd. Nation Centre, 12th Floor P.O. Box 41868 Nairobi Tel. 315628/9 Fax. 315630/315748 E-Mail: nyagastk@users.africaonline.co.ke

E-mail and web site not working
Suntra Investment Bank Ltd. Nation Centre, 10th Floor P.O. Box 74016 Nairobi Tel. 337220 Fax. 224327 E-Mail: info@suntrastocks.co.ke WEB: http://www.suntrastocks.co.ke

Francis Thuo & Partners Ltd. International Life House, 13th Floor P.O. Box 46524 Nairobi Tel. 226531/2/3 Fax. 228498 E-Mail: ftbrokers@wananchi.com WEB: http://www.ftbrokers.com

Kestrel Capital (Ea) Limited Hughes Building, 7th Floor P.O. Box 40005 Nairobi Tel. 251758 Fax. 243264 E-Mail: info@kestrelcapital.com WEB: http://www.kestrelcapital.com

No response to e-mail within 24 hours and web site not working
Discount Securities Ltd International House, 3rd Floor P.O. Box 42489 Nairobi Tel. 219552/38 Fax. 230987 E-Mail: discount@dsl.co.ke WEB: http://www.e-bsolutions.biz/discount

Solid Investment Securities Ltd Contrust House, 6th Floor P.O. Box 63046 Nairobi Tel. 244272/9 Fax. 244280 E-Mail: sisl@solidkenya.com http://www.solidkenya.com site under construction but not active

Standard Investment Bank Ltd. Hazina Towers, 17th Floor, P.O. Box 13714 Nairobi Tel. 220225/240296/227004 Fax. 240297 E-Mail:info@standardstocks.com WEB: http://www.standardstocks.com site under construction

No response to e-mail within 24 hours
Ngenye Kariuki & Co. Ltd: Travel (UTC) House, 5th Floor, P.O. Box 12185 Nairobi Tel. 224333/226250 Fax. 241825 E-Mail: ngenyekari@wananchi.com

Crossfield Securities Ltd IPS Building, 5th Floor, P.O. Box 34137 Nairobi Tel. 246036/245971 Fax. 245971 E-Mail: crossfield@wananchi.com

Reliable Securities Ltd. Standard Building, 3rd Floor P.O. Box 50338 Nairobi Tel. 241350/4/79 Fax. 241392 E-Mail: reliable@gt.co.ke

African Alliance Kenya Ltd Kenya Re Towers, Ground Floor, Upper Hill, P.O. Box 27639, 0506 Nairobi Tel. 2735013/2735154/2735138 Fax. 2731162 E-Mail: otienol@africanalliance.co.ke

Sterling Securities Ltd. Finance House, 10th Floor P.O. Box 45080, 00100 Nairobi
Tel. 213914/244077 Mobile: 0723153219/0734219146 Fax. 218261 E-Mail: info@sterlingstocks.com

CFC Financial Services – Stockbroking Division Corner House, Ground Floor P.O. Box 47198 – 00100 Nairobi Tel. 221452/3 Fax. 218813 E-Mail: cfcfs@cfcgroup.co.ke FYI: These are the brokers I use

Top Firms:

4. APEXAFRICA INVESTMENT BANK LTD
Rehani House, 4th Floor P.O. Box 43676,Nairobi Tel. 242170/220517 Fax. 215554
E-MAIL: invest@apexafrica.com 3 hours to respond to my e-mail
WEB: http://www.apexafrica.com site is a bit basic, and not updated much
Costs: 2.1% if transaction is worth less than 100,000 and 1.8% if above 100,000

3. DYER & BLAIR INVESTMENT BANK LTD
Loita House, 10th Floor P.O. Box 45396 Nairobi Tel. 227803/4/5 Fax. 218633
E-MAIL: admin@dyer.africaonline.co.ke 25 hours to respond to e-mail
WEB: http://www.dyerandblair.com Web site allows online account management, is up to date, but rather slow
Minimums: 100 shares per transaction
Commission: 2.1% for any deal less than 100,000 shillings and 1.8% for any transaction amount above that. Also charge revenue stamp duty of two shillings for every ten thousand shillings.

2. FAIDA SECURITIES LTD
Windsor House, 1st Floor P.O. Box 45236 Nairobi Tel. 243811/2/3 Fax. 243814
E-MAIL: faidastocks@wananchi.com 24 hours to respond to e-mail
WEB: http://www.faidastocks.com Have online account management and their web site is up to date
Minimums: 100 shares per transaction
Commission: 2.1% for transactions below Kshs100,000 and 1.8% for transactions above Kshs 100,000.

1. FRANCIS DRUMMOND & CO. LTD.
Hughes Building, 2nd Floor P.O. Box 45465, Nairobi Tel. 318690/318689 Fax. 223061
E-MAIL: info@francisdrummond.com e-mail response in 2 hours.
WEB:http://www.francisdrummond.com The web site is updated daily with company news and disclosures. They also have online account management features enabling clients to trade and manage their accounts through the web site, at no extra charge and many Kenyans in the diaspora are already using this service.
Minimums: starting trade is 100 shares for new clients
Commission: For purchases above 100,000 shillings, charges are 1.8% and below 100,000, charges are 2.1%.

KPLC to offer fibre optics

From Balancing Act Africa:

Kenya Light and Power Company (KPLC) is reported to be seeking a licence to sell fibre capacity and will invest Kshs. 2.2 billion if it gets the go-ahead. Funding for the investment is coming from the European Investment Bank under its Energy Sector Recovery Project and KPLC has chosen a German company (Fichtner Gmbh) to provide consultancy services for the project which will connect Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret, Nyeri and Tororo in Uganda providing a national backbone for telecommunications players.

This Week

The Blues
It’s that time of the month again.

Stanchart Top Bank
Market Intelligence published their eighth annual banking survey this week, and ranked Standard Chartered as the top bank in Kenya, followed by Barclays and surprisingly coming third was Equity Bank no. Other rankings are Citibank 9th, KCB 25, National Bank 26, and Co-operative Bank at number 30.

Corruption
The Economist took its bi-monthly look at Kenya and notes that the prosecution of anti-corruption cases will continue to fail as long as they are handled by the Attorney General’s office – and that Parliament should transfer these powers to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Privatization
Both the Daily Nation and the East African Standard condemned the Privatisation Bill passed last week in Parliament, because it handed the entire privatisation process over to a “Gang of Eleven” – political appointees handpicked by the president and the Minister for Finance and who are not subject to approval of the Parliament . Earlier drafts of the Bill had provided for the involvement of bodies such as the Law Society of Kenya, the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya and the Federation of Kenya Employers in the privatisation process.

Elsewhere, India has abandoned plans to privatise a dozen profitable state-owned companies.

Airport Hotel booming
The new Panari Hotel is doing roaring business from airline passengers and crews. Because of its location on Mombasa Road, about halfway between Nairobi city and JKIA , hotel guests rarely have to worry about traffic jams on their way to the airport for their flights. It is also quite convenient for Wilson Airport passengers.

Debt forgiveness
The Kenya Planters Coffee Union (KPCU) has re-opened a debt moratorium window 1st September to December 31st 2005. This will extend debt relief to farmers by giving them a chance to repay principal amount (no interest will be charged) from 31st December 1991 to 31st December 2001 with all interest payments forgiven.. However, this is not likely to fly as coffee farmers are asking the government for complete, 100% debt forgiveness including principal.

Sports Weekend
Saturday 20 August
12:30 – 15:00 MNET/SS1 Tri-Nations:: Australia vs SA,
13:00 – 14:15 SS2 Formula One: Turkish Qualifying,
14:10 – 17:00 SS3 FA Premiership:: Man Utd vs Aston Villa,
14:15 – 16:30 SS2 Scottish:: Rangers vs Celtic,
17:00 – 19:15 SS3 FA Premiership:: Liverpool vs Sunderland,
17:00 – 19:15 SS6 FA Premiership:: Newcastle vs West Ham,
19:15 – 21:30 SS3/CSN FA Premiership:: Birmingham vs Man City,
22:45 – 01:00 SS7 Spanish Super Cup: Barcelona vs Real Betis,

Sunday 21 August
14:30 – 17:00 SS2 Formula One: Turkish Main Race,
15:00 – 17:45 SS3 FA Premiership:: Bolton vs Everton,
17:45 – 20:15 SS3 FA Premiership:: Chelsea vs Arsenal,
18:00 – 21:00 SS1 IAAF GP: GP – Sheffield,