Category Archives: Britak

Britam vs Cytonn Executives

A dispute between insurance giant Britam and some of its former executives who left the firm and set up a rival investment management firm called Cytonn has been on and off for the last four years. Recently a judge ruled that a criminal case would continue in the courts.

After that decision, Cytonn CEO Edwin Dande issued a personal statement on the long-running case as he set out to absolve Cytonn, which is known for its real estate property developments and financial industry reports, from the case against its four executives who had been at Britam. He writes on the reasons behind the dispute and their departure  which he says was due to insider attempts to destroy a Kshs 5 billion portfolio of client funds that they had brought to Britam (excerpts) :

  • .. the resignation was due to an operating environment that was fraught with illegalities and unethical business practices that we did not agree with…
  • we could not agree to be part of actions such as illegally using client insurance funds to purchase shares of Britam to rescue a failed IPO, we objected to using insurance funds under our management to purchase a failing bank – a transaction that has now led to loss of billions of shillings of investors’ funds..  
  • ..following our resignation, Britam launched a full-scale assault in an attempt to ruin our careers by filing 7 different suits claiming up to Kshs. 9.8 billion in stolen funds… 
  • The suits were obviously malicious and designed to achieve only two objectives: first was to punish the former team for daring to leave as a team, and second was to deter competition.

He writes that his statement was released was to reassure Cytonn’s 500 employees and 3,000 clients who had invested over Kshs 20 billion in various investment products.

Britam has been silent on the dispute other than their 2014 annual report which mentions the litigation; The British-American Asset Managers Limited is the Fund manager of a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) which has been mandated to invest in property. The LLP loaned Shs 3.9 billion to various third parties to purchase property. The company on behalf of the LLP has instituted legal suits to recover the above amounts plus costs. The court cases are ongoing and we expect that the outcome will be favourable

Both Cytonn’s managers and Britam have separately settled with Acorn that was a partner in the fund-raising plan before the dispute.

EDIT/ Update October 12: The Court of Appeal granted stay orders on October 11, meaning there is no prosecution action against the four Cytonn executives for now.

East Africa M&A Moment: June 2015

Recent stuff in the newspapers (mainly the Business Daily), Kenya Gazette  (some of the just-approved deals were first announced two years ago) and press releases. $1 is about 95 Kenya shillings (and about 90 when deals were formulated)

Overall

Earlier this month, the Financial Times (FT) reported that mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity in Africa has fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade, as a result of collapsing commodity prices, political volatility and an anticipated rise in US interest rates. The value of African deals so far this year stands at $9.2 billion — 23% lower than the same period 12 months ago and the lowest level recorded since 2004, according to data from Dealogic.

Burbidge Capital also found that Kenya’s merger & acquisition deals slowed down in 2015 – with 11 M&A deals so far compared to 17 in the first four months of 2014. This year, the largest concluded deals have seen Helios sell a stake in Equity Bank to Norwegian funds and Old Mutual’s purchase of a 60.7% in UAP Holdings.

Banking/Finance

More mergers are expected in the Kenyan banking sector as the Treasury Secretary announced that an increase in the minimum capital to strengthen banks’ capital base and increase competition…progressively from the current Kshs 1 billion to Kshs 5 billion (~52 million) by 2018. 20 banks are below the Kshs 2 billion mark.

  • Helios cashing out;  Norfund & Norwegian private investors are acquiring 50% of Helios partners investment in Kenya’ Equity Bank Group and will now own 12%. And today, Uganda’s National Social Security Fund has bought a 2.44% stake in Equity Bank Group from Helios Investors at Kshs 50 per share – and the new deal is worth ~$50 million.
  • National Bank management said it has not been briefed on any merger plans with its State-owned rival Consolidated Bank. Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich said National Bank would be merged with another bank before it’s planned rights issue. The government is the biggest shareholder of National Bank controlling about 79% of shares consisting of Treasury and NSSF stakes. As part of a rights issue, it is expected that NBK will retire its preference shares (held by the Treasury and NSSF) by converting them into ordinary shares.
  • High-level talks regarding a merger between NIC Bank and Commercial Bank of Africa are reportedly taking place but Mshwari may be spun out of any resulting entity. Both are mid-tier banks with quite a focus on corporate and high-end clients.
  • While Mwalimu SACCO is acquiring 51% of Equatorial Commercial Bank (ECB), the Society is not converting into a bank nor merging with ECB.
  • Kenya’s Nairobi Securities Exchange is acquiring 77% of their associate company CDSC, which they own with stockbrokers, in a deal worth~Kshs 260 million.
  • Barclays Africa advised on the largest sale of an African Bank in 2014 – a deal, in which Nigeria state-owned Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) sold Mainstreet Bank to Skye Bank.
  • Equity Group Holdings agreed to acquire 79% of ProCredit Bank Congo, the 7th largest bank (by assets) in DRC. ProCredit has total assets of $200 million, a customer base of over 170,000, and has KfW (12%) and IFC (9%) amongst its shareholders.
  • Liaison Financial Services who have just been approved as an investment advisor in Kenya recently acquired the African business of Knutson Global who were involved in asset-backed securities, municipal development bonds and consumer lending.

Insurance

Oxford Business Group expects strong Kenya insurance M&A as companies merge to increase market share & meet higher capital requirements.

  • The Mauritian Minister for Financial Services, Roshi Bhadain, said the State Insurance Company of Mauritius (SICOM), would take over the 23.9% stake (valued at more than Kshs 13 billion) held by Businessman, Mr. Dawood Rawat, in financial services firm British-American Investments Company (Kenya)  – a.k.a. Britam. This comes after the government of Mauritius placed Rawat’s firms in receivership over alleged financial impropriety charges.
  • UAP and Old Mutual agreed on a merger ahead of listing. This comes after Old Mutual raised its shareholding to 60% from 23% after buying 37% from private equity (PE) firms Aureos, Africinvest and Swedfund for around Kshs 14 billion. Old Mutual will not buy out the other 1,000 minority shareholders (who are staff & agents). Old Mutual first bought into UAP in January by acquiring a 23.3% stake from Centum Investments and businessman Chris Kirubi. Centum sold its stake to get the funding it needed for its massive real estate, financial services and power projects.
  • Also, the Competition Authority approved the acquisition of 60% of UAP Holdings by Old Mutual Holdings and Old Mutual Life Assurance.
  • Barclays Africa will acquire 63% of First Assurance, Kenya’s No. 10 insurer, for Kshs 2.8 billion (~$30 million).
  • KCB Group is said to be considering a takeover of Madison Insurance.
  • Pan Africa Insurance shareholders approved the acquisition of at least 51% of Gateway Insurance. Through this acquisition, the company will enter into the general insurance business.
  • Kenya’s competition authority approved the acquisition of 61.2% of Resolution Health East Africa by Leapfrog II Holdings.

Hotels/Tourism

  • The Heron Portico, which is managed by Indian hospitality group Sarovar Hotels & Resorts, says the acquisition of rival Zehneria Hotel in Nairobi’s Westlands in a Kshs 1 billion buyout to expand its market share in conference tourism and hospitality industry in Kenya. The Heron Portico financed 80% of the purchase price using debt while the rest is self-financed.
  • Minor Hotel Group of Thailand, and Elewana Afrika, are acquiring 6 camps spread across national parks in Meru, Samburu and Narok counties. Stefano and Liz Cheli (Cheli and Peacock Group), the founders of the camps, will continue to run the resorts and focus on business development.
  • Kenya’s Competition Authority approved the acquisition by Fortune Hotels of Paradise Safari Park and 85% of Paradise Investments and Development Kenya held by Paradise Company.
  • TPSEA (Serena) acquires 25.1% of TPS (D) that was set up to run the Movenpick Hotel in Dar, now known as the Dar es Salaam Serena Hotel in Tanzania.

Logistics/Transport

  • Frontier Services Group (FSG), a Nairobi-based logistics firm, has completed its purchase of Cheetah Logistics SARL – Congolese transport company as part of central and western Africa expansion plan. Kenya’s competition authority also approved the acquisition of Phoenix Aviation by Frontier Services Group as well as the acquisition of 55% of Tradewinds Aviation Services by NAS Africa Aviation.
  • UK logistics and engineering firm Atlas Development says it is in advanced stages of discussions with potential takeover targets in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia.
  • Part of Best Wing Cargo operations at JKIA have been transferred to Suppercare Freight Services.
  • Part of  Fastlane Freight Forwarders operations at JKIA have been transferred to Airwagon Cargo Movers.

Energy

  • Norfund to acquire a stake in Globeleq Africa from Actis for $225M and partner with CDC to pursue power generation opportunities.
  • UAE’s Gulf Petrochem Group acquires Essar Petroleum East Africa and renames it as Aspam Energy (Kenya) in a deal to enhance the group’s integrated services and products for the downstream supply chain in the oil and gas sector in East Africa.

Media/PR

  • Scangroup dropped a bid to acquire 80% of Experiential Marketing, as approvals were not granted in time. Scangroup shareholders later renamed the company WPP Scangroup signifying that WPP Scangroup and WPP plc. are now fully together, with a shared vision for developing marketing communications across Sub Saharan Africa.
  • Hill+Knowlton Strategies (H+K), and Buchanan, one of the world’s leading financial communications consultancies, joined forces to launch H+K Financial, a specialist financial communications division dedicated to the Middle East and Africa.

Telecommunications/ICT

  • Millicom is to acquire 85% of Zanzibar’s Zantel for $1 and take over $74 million of its debts. Zantel is the leading Telco in Zanzibar (but just 5% to Tanzania’s total) with $82m in revenue and 1.7m customers.
  • Kenyan innovation, Wezatele, was acquired for $1.7 million by AFB Kenya.
  • Techno Brain acquired the trips™ suite of integrated customs &revenue software from Crown Agents to provide tax and customs solutions that target the broader financial management needs of the government.
  • Akvo Kenya transfers the business of building open source internet and mobile software to support international development partnerships to Akvo Kenya Foundation.

Industry

  • A Paris-based PE fund bought 30% of Ramco Plexus, a subsidiary of Ramco Group that has an annual turnover of Kshs 5.5 billion. The Ramco Group was started in 1948 as a hardware store and has grown into a 34-subsidiary strong business, which employs 3,000 people.
  • The Competition Authority approved the acquisition of 51% of Bullpark by Nampak Holdings.

 Pharmaceuticals

  • Business transfer:  Antipest Kenya Limited, has transferred to Modern Ways.
  • Business transfer: Unicorn Pharma Kenya has been sold and transferred to Medisel (Kenya)
  • The Competition Authority approved the acquisition of the assets of European Perfumes and Cosmetics by Charm Industries. The deal excludes the debts of Varanasi Deepak, and Chirag Savia.

 Agri Business/Food Business

  • Syngenta rejected Monsanto’s $45 billion merger offer. An eventual agreement will have an impact on Kenya’s agricultural sector.
  • Shareholders of REA Vipingo Plantations approved the sale of the firm’s land at Vipingo to Centum Investments as agreed upon in a settlement with R.E.A Trading.
  • Giant milk processor Brookside Dairy has bought out Sameer Agriculture & Livestock business in Uganda for Sh3.5 billion (~$38 million). The government of Uganda, which owns 49% (of Sameer) confirmed this on March 25.
  • Business transfer: Pure Imported (formerly European Foods E.A. Limited) (which was in the business of importing & selling deep frozen foods and supplying fresh juices) to European Foods Africa.
  • The Competition Authority exempted the production, bottling supply and distribution business between Distell and Kenya Wine Agencies Business transfer: for 5 years.
  • Business transfer: The ice cream production & trading business of Alpha Dairy Products is being transferred to Razco.
  • Tanzania’s Competition Commission may reverse its decision approving for EABL to merge with Serengeti Breweries, as Serengeti’s performance failed to meet expectations.
  • The Competition Authority approved the acquisition of an additional 30% in Largo Investments by NAS Holdings.
  • The Competition Authority approved the acquisition of the brands and assets of Chirag (Kenya) by Chirag Africa. Elsewhere these were acquired by newly-listed Flame Tree.
  • The Competition Authority approved the acquisition of 52% of Ennsvalley Bakery by Unga Holdings.
  • Norwegian private equity fund, Norfund, has bought shares in agriculture firm Vertical Agro in a Kshs 476 million (38.7 million Norwegian krone) deal. Vertical Agro is the parent company of Sunripe and Serengeti Fresh which makes it the largest exporter of organic vegetables in the country. The company produces 6,500 tonnes of fruits and vegetables annually from its farms in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

Property

  • Kenya’s Competition Authority has approved (i) The acquisition of 50% of Equatorial Commercial Bank Centre by Fidelity Shield Insurance  (ii)  The acquisition of Parkway Investments by Mt. Kenya University Trustees (iii) The acquisition of Endebees Estate (Kilifi Holdings) by Balloobhoni Chhotabhai Patel.

Capital Gains Tax in Kenya

It’s a new year, and with it comes the reintroduction of the capital gains tax (CGT) in Kenya. This is not the first time it’s appeared (it was suspended in 1985), but previous attempts to reintroduce it in 2007 and 2011 were set aside by parliament. This time it has stuck and is now the law, with the a 5% tax imposed on the transfer of land, buildings and investment shares.

While guidelines have been published by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) it’s still unclear how the tax is to be determined such as on the buying and selling of shares.

For the last few weeks there’s been a mini-rush to complete the sale of some land and share deals. e.g. Equity Bank’s divestiture from Housing Finance with a sale of 24.9% to British American Investments (Britam) for Kshs 2.7 billion ($30.3 million) was concluded on December 31, 2014 (presumably beating the tax deadline).

With land deals, there may be some double taxation, in that  that while a buyer pays stamp duty of 4% of the sale value, the government will also deduct 5% from the amount paid to the seller for the same piece of land.

CGT will apply when  a property is gifted, abandoned or when the rights to a land title. Exemptions allowed under CGT include transfers that involve retirement benefits, divorce, land that is less than 100 acres, when a company issues shares, motor vehicles, estates of dead people, in corporate restructurings, and if someone sells a house they have lived in for more than 3 years.

Curiously the guidelines have something special for Kenya’s budding extractive industry, but which some investors are not happy about as for sector, which includes, oil, gas, and minerals comes up for some special attention: The net gain on disposal of interest in a person owning immovable property in the mining and petroleum industry is taxable..at 30% for residents and 37.5% for non residents. 

Shares Portfolio: November 2014

Comparing shares to last year and last quarter, the portfolio is up 7% in three months (excluding new investments), while the NSE 20 share index is up is up 0.5% since August 2014.

The Stable

snoop

Bralirwa (Rwanda) ↓
Centum  (ICDCI) ↑
Diamond Trust ↓
KCB ↓
Kenya Airways ↓
Kenya Oil ↑
Mumias Sugar
Nairobi Shares Exchange ↑
Safaricom ↑
Scangroup ↓
Stanbic (Uganda) ↑
Unga ↑
Changes
In: Mumias Sugar
Out: None
Increase: Kenya Airways, KCB, Scangroup
Decrease: None
Best performer: NSE Kenya (up 121% since IPO), Centum (16%), (Unga 14%)
Worst performer: Kenya Airways (down 22%) Bralirwa (down 19%)
Unexpected Events:
– Bralirwa share dip which has been linked to the bonus share
– KQ’s loss in the half year. Amid the arrival of a half-dozen new Boeing 787 Dreamliners and other aircraft and long serving CEO Titus Naikuni stepping down there was one more shock from the airline in the form of a half year loss of Kshs 10.45 billion ($116 million)
– Are Kenya bank stocks overvalued as a Citi report says?
– Listings by Kurwitu Ventures (at Kshs 1,500 per share, which was higher than British American Tobacco that’s at 904 now) and Flame Tree (FTG) in recent weeks in the GEMS category of the NSE.
– Both Equity and Housing Finance forming holding companies and transferring banking and mortgage business respectively to the new group parents.
– The vicious fallout between BritAm and Cytonn.
Looking forward to
– Unga’s acquisition of Ennsvalley, a bakery worth Kshs 500 million ($5.55 million)
– Uchumi’s rights issue to raise Kshs 895 million ($10 million) by offering shareholders 3 shares for every 8 held at Kshs 9 per share, with the funds to be used for expansion in East Africa and refurbishment of stores.
– Seeing how Mumias Sugar shares proceed..having gone from highs of Kshs 40 in years past, to 1.4 this month.

Scooping Money from Investors

Seems like there are not enough investments to satisfy local debt & equity investors in Nairobi.

NSE IPO:  The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) IPO with 66 million new shares offered to the public, was oversubscribed by 687% in the retail pool, and the NSE now has 17,883 shareholders, up from 24 before the IPO. Local retail investors were allocated 41% of the shares, local institutional  34% and foreign investors received 23%. 

Britam bond:  BritAM whose 13% Kshs 6 billion bond started trading last month had a 144 per cent over-subscription netting Kshs. 7.323 billion. This was after invoking a green shoe option on the Kshs 3 billion targeted and exercised (the green shoe was for another Kshs 3 billion)  which allowed Britam to retain Kshs. 6 billion.

NIC bond: Offered at 12.5%, the bond received offers of Kshs 6.5 billion, representing a 30% oversubscription over the upsized amount of Kshs 5 billion. Institutional investors made up 90% of the applicants, and retail were 10%.