Monthly Archives: February 2006

Barclays 2005

Barclays is the first bank to publish it’s final accounts for the year 2005 and the results reaffirm the Bank’s #1 status in the country even though their balance sheet shrunk from 110 to 105 billion ($1.45 billion).

The bank’s performance dipped during the year and after-tax profit was 3.72 billion shillings, which was down from 3.85b in 2004. The Bank attributed the loss to the closure of branches and one-time retrenchment costs. Even as loans during the year increased from 63b to 66b, total non-performing assets also increased from 9b to 11.9b.

Also noticeable was the Bank’s fee & commission income dipped from 5b to 4.8 billion shillings which could be an indication that Kenyan bank customers are getting smarter about avoiding/minimising the amounts that banks can extract from them through charges. Barclays and Standard Chartered both earn about 40% of their total income from fees, while other banks like Equity, KCB, Cooperative and CBA are more dependent on such income.

With earnings per share of 18 shillings, the Bank was once again very generous and will pay a total dividend of 14 shillings per share. Barclays second and final dividend of 11 sh per share (1st of 3sh was paid in October) will be paid after their AGM on Friday, April 28 at KICC to shareholders of record as at 23rd March.

February 21

Bank news

SMS Banking: Paramount Bank is the latest to introduce SMS Banking in conjunction with Safaricom. Each SMS received e.g. for mini-statements, withdrawal/deposit notifications, balance queries and Forex rates will result in a 10 shillings debit to an account. This compares with Co-op Bank which charges 15/= to 30/= for similar services via mobile phone.

Top dog: Citibank Kenya gets a new MD

Un-doing Githongo

The Kenya Pipeline Company has resumed construction of its headquarters in Embakasi which was stopped by then-PS John Githongo. A move to a new building, once completed, should save the company about 50 million a year which it pays to the National Bank for renting one-quarter of its headquarters in downtown Nairobi.

Other news
BAT: In 2005, British American tobacco turnover increased from 9.87b to 11.2 billion shillings and after-tax profit increased from 1.21b to 1.38b. The company will pay a final dividend of 4.5 shillings after the AGM on 25 April to shareholders as at 20 March. Total dividend for the year will be 12.5 out of EPS of 13.82 shillings for the year. Like EABL and Safaricom who probably feel some guilt over their high annual profits, BAT reminded the public that they paid 5.3 billion shillings to the government through excise, VAT and income taxes last year.

Kengen has cancelled a controversial plan to reserve IPO shares in the company for a select group of investors.

The NSSF is still saddled with several prime plots a year after they first tried to sell them. These include a 4.7 acre parking lot between GPO & Grand Regency, .9 & 1.3 acre plots on State House, 2 acres opp. Fairview Hotel and 63 beach-front acres in Kikambala Mombasa, among others. They appear to have sold their 50 acres near Karen, 20 acres on Langata Road and 2.5 acres on Hospital Rd in Upper Hill.

Opportunities
Develop websites for the Government of Kenya (tender 3/2005/06 ) including the official government website and standard sites for each of the 33 government ministries. Apply to the Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of Public Service, P O Box 62345-00200 Nairobi by March 20. More info can be obtained from the ICT secretary at info@kenya.go.ke and the application process also includes a non-refundable fee of 10,000 shillings.
Import from Japan: The Government of Japan is funding an import substitution program for businessmen and companies through the Government of Kenya Monday. Apply by March 13 to crownagents@ke.crownagents.com.

Jobs
– AATF administration & finance manager at the Africa-agricultural technology foundation. Apply at aatf@aatf-africa.org by Feb 24
– Danida Kenya senior private sector development adviser. Apply here y Feb 23.
– IFC Expert consultants at the Africa business environment rapid response task force. Apply at ifc.org/careers by March 3.

Politics
Political Reform*1: Planning Permanent Secretary, Dr. Edward Sambili, has called for the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission to probe allegations of misuse of constituency development funds (CDF).
Political Reform*2 From South Africa – Contained in the ANC’s election manifesto is a code of conduct for their municipal candidates that Kenyan MP’s should be asked to swear to include;
– I will fight against corruption in any guise or form.
– I will listen to the views of the community and hold a public meeting with all community members to report back on my work, at least four times a year.
– I will live in the community that has elected me.

Homeless

I am effectively homeless after giving my landlady formal notice to end my lease. The requirement of a two-month notice has left me with about 50 days to find a new place. In the meantime I also have to move out and fix & paint my old place in order to get back my deposit worth 2 months rent and other tenant costs.

I am very happy where I am now but this year my situation has changed this year – I need a bigger place, and I also have an additional car loan to service. But I was also getting tired of my current lease requirement of paying rent in cash only – which necessitated two visits to the ATM on consecutive days. In between I always feared I’d be car-jacked and lose a month’s rent.

So I am looking for a new place, at similar or lower cost, that’s still close to town, a secure neighborhood, and that’s green. – There are parts of Nairobi where the lack of greenery (trees or grass) is depressing. Also traffic, and the commute to town, should not be a major issue – and this rules out living on Thika Road or Jogoo Road.

In terms of security, there are many beautiful apartments in Nairobi – but to access the compounds is very tricky. Some have non-existent, rocky, dusty or bushy roads. This may be fine now, but I wouldn’t want to use the same road by car or foot at night, and I can only imagine how bad it would be during the rainy season

The search for an apartment has been time-consuming and frustrating and I spend all my free time driving around, looking at “for rent” signs. Any apartment advertised by a real estate agent will cost about 10,000 more than it can truly had for – and they try and justify this by throwing in pool, gym, Jacuzzi and other facilities that I may never use.

The number of con people out there also is troubling. I have seen houses, which I later found out, were not available for rent, or which the owner was unknown, or out of the country. I flatly refuse to pay a viewing fee that some people charge usually 1,500 to view a house. I have learnt not to call cell phone numbers, as 70% of them are a waste of time. And I have found confirmed that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is – like when I see ads, like 3br apartment in Westlands for 20,000

February 17

News

KPLC
The Kenya Power & Lighting Company will launch a pre-paid payment system on a pilot basis before rolling it out to their 750,000 customers. The public opening of tenders for the project will be held on February 23. KPLC’s 6 month after-tax profits increased to 761 million at December 31 from 504m the previous year.

Serena
Even with over 90% of shareholder notices returned, the hotel chain has extended the deadline for its share swap to April 14. The new stock should be listed on the NSE on March 15 and an extraordinary general meeting will be held on March 24 to approve de-listing of the old shares.

Jobs

Aga Khan Foundation
– Regional financial analyst. Apply at akf.east-africa@akdn.org by February 24.

East African Standard
– Senior business writers
– Photographers
Apply at hrd@eastandard.net

Kencall
All applicants must have clear & neutral accents and check for more details and apply at their site
– Telesales executives
– Transcribers
– Marketing/PR/Business Development Manager
– Database Analyst SQL2000/2005 or mySQL
– Systems Administrator Helpdesk and Service Desk

Planning Systems Services
– Architects
– Architectural assistants
Apply to the administration director at info@planning-kenya.com

Spy vs Spy

Africa Confidential reports that both President Kibaki and National Intelligence chief Brigadier Wilson Boinet knew that Githongo was covertly recording conversations with senior officials in the government. And for his part Boinet was monitoring all of Githongo’s external calls.