Category Archives: Investing in Kenya

Safari Rally return Postponed

Today was supposed to be the start of the return of the Safari Rally after several years of preparation had resulted in an announcement by the President of Kenya and the WRC in September 2019 that the race was back. 

The Safari Rally was legendary as being one of the WRC’s (World Rally Championship) toughest rounds with a route, at about 5,000 kilometres, that was twice as long as other rallies. It used to be run around Easter, which is usually the long rain season, and in some years, showers would transform dry, dusty trails into mud baths.

It was run over four or five days and nights, on open roads that drew in more hazards, such as encounters with other motorists and wildlife and all these ensured that a Safari win was one of motorsport’s most coveted prizes for drivers, teams, and car manufacturers.

But rallying has not aged well in the era of modern TV and having drivers race for several days and nights on open remote roads means it is tough to sell the action to a global television audience.

This years’ rally, that was set to take place between July 16 – 19, and now been pushed to 2021, had evolved to fit the modern-day WRC. It is organised by the WRC Safari Rally Project, a joint venture between Kenya’s Sports Ministry and the Kenya Motor Sports Federation to return the Safari to the WRC calendar which it had been dropped from in 2002.

But its Safari character remains, with racing on challenging dirt roads,  with picturesque African scenes. It was to be based in Nairobi with the service park and stages on closed roads in the Hells Gate National Park and around Lakes Naivasha and Elementaita in the Great Rift Valley.

Before the Coronavirus shut down world travel, it was expected to feature several, if not all of the current top WRC teams and cars. These include the Hyundai i20, Ford Fiesta, Citroen C3, Toyota Yaris, and others from Skoda and Volkswagen that are all 4WD cars with 1.6-litre turbo engines able to reach 200 kilometres per hour.

Here is a Pinterest series of older WRC Safari rally pictures.  

Other:

  • Kenya has an annual local rally series sponsored by banking giant, the KCB Group.
  • There has also been a classic safari rally series featuring older rally cars. sponsored for many years by Kenya Airways, and more recently by Safaricom, it took racers around East Africa in the grand old style of the 1960’s rallies.

EDIT Oct 9, 2020: Kenya’s iconic Safari Rally and Japan, which were both included in this year’s schedule but cancelled due to the pandemic, are on the 2021 WRC calendar. Kenya is slotted for 24 – 27 June, 2021 as the WRC returns to Africa for the first time since 2002.

Helios & Fairfax to partner on Africa investments

July 2020 saw the announcement of a proposed strategic transaction between Helios Holdings and Fairfax Africa Holdings to create a new entity known as the Helios Fairfax Partners Corporation that aims to become the leading pan-Africa focused listed alternative asset manager with unique capabilities to invest across the continent.

Helios will contribute some management and performance fees it currently earns in exchange for 46% of the venture while Fairfax will retain control of the combined entity.

Helios, founded in 20004, manages $3.6 billion of assets, as Africa’s largest private equity fund with stakes in Nigerian oil (49% of Oando), e-commerce (Mall for Africa), payments (Interswitch) and South African telecom tower firms.

Helios will be the sole investment advisor to the partnership on all deals including Fairfax’s purchase of a stake in Atlas Mara for $40 million. The Co-Founders and Managing Partners of Helios, Tope Lawani and Babatunde Soyoye, will be Joint CEO’s while the current CEO of Fairfax, Michael Wilkerson, will become the Executive Chairman of the new entity.  

In Kenya, Helios first made a splash in 2007 buying 25% of Equity Bank and then going on to sell its stake in 2015 netting $500 million. They have since been involved in deals such as the Acorn green bond, Telkom Kenya, Wananchi Group and Vivo Energy.

Current investors in Helios include CDC which has invested over $100 million, and the IFC. Fairfax Africa shareholders will be asked to approve the deal that has been unanimously approved by a special board committee, that was advised by Alvarium, and have it completed in the third quarter of 2020. The partnership will be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, where Fairfax shares currently trade.  

E.A. Power & Lighting, 1929

The financial results of the East Africa Power & Lighting Company were published in London in July 1930 and reported by the East African Standard in Nairobi later that month.

Excerpts:

  • Revenue from sales for the year after generation costs was £86,891. Other revenue was £1,334 from the meter department.
  • Repairs, maintenance and distribution cost £11,964, salaries were £11,649, while directors fees and head offices expenses were £5,265, leaving a balance on the revenue account of £65,044.
  • The authorized share capital of the company was £700,000 with £570,000 issued, of which £270,000 are (7%) preference shareholders. Capital expenditure of the company was £432,462, with investments of £50,000.
  • The profit carried forward of Shgs 1,334,797 (equivalent to £66,739/17) was allocated as a dividend of Shgs 378,000 to the preference shareholders, depreciation was Shgs 220,000, to the general reserve was Shgs 60,000, re-issue of capital of Shgs 120,000 and a reduction of capital expenditure of Shgs 45,857.
  • This left a balance of Shgs 330,940 out of which a final dividend of 4% (making a total of 7% for the year) would be paid, and the staff provident fund would get Shgs 60,000, while Shgs 30,490 would be carried forward.
  • The company was negotiating with the Government for permission to develop further hydro-electric resources. The Financial Times described the discussions as “progressive” and that a favourable decision would soon be reached to hasten the execution of the work. They were also considering an additional plant in the Mombasa area to meet the increasing demand.
  • The number of consumers in Nairobi in 1929 was 3,084, an increase from 2,292 in 1927, while Mombasa had 1,424 consumers, an increase from 994 in 1927.
  • Owing to his absence from the Colony, Mr. J. Cumming, who joined the board in 1928, resigned his position as a director. The Hon. D. Finch Hatton was re-elected, while Mr. R. G. Vernon of Nairobi was appointed to fill a temporary vacancy on the board.

More:

  • From KPLC: In 1922, two utilities in Nairobi and Mombasa merged under a new company incorporated as the East African Power and Lighting Company (EAP&L).
  • See a more detailed story on the history of the company and a recent one on investing.

Aviation in Africa after Corona

The future of aviation in Africa after Coronavirus was the subject of a webinar by Invest Africa held this week with aviation experts. It came on the day that Air Mauritius entered into voluntary receivership, and this was said to be the first of many that will follow.

The call, which was said to be one of the most popular by Invest Africa, featured Rodger Foster (CEO at Airline SA), James Hogan, (former CEO at Etihad), Nick van de Meer (COO at Vista Global), Tony Payne, Yvonne Makolo (CEO at RwandAir) and Allan Kilavuka (MD at Kenya Airways).

Some excerpts:

  • The whole industry in lockdown and we have never seen global aviation stop, just cargo and emergencies. Airlines, can’t use 9/11 and SARS as an indication, but 9/11 resulted in 40% of business loss which took almost 5 years to recover from.
  • 40% of the global commercial aircraft grounded may not fly ever again. When SAA resumes after Coronavirus, it may only operate at 3% of its previous capacity flying 5 routes with 3 planes, down from 3,000 flights and 55 routes. 
  • Rethink business models: Rethink networks, rationalize flees, and operate small capacity aircraft. When travel resumes it’s unlikely that will require large aircraft. There may be just 3-4 business class passengers on some routes and while people may increase travel over 12-24 months, the global shutdown has made them realize that virtual meetings work, and there is less need to travel. 
  • There’s too much capacity and, with 200 airlines, too many players in Africa aviation. It will be survival of the fittest.
  • Airlines usually have 2 months of cash on hand, but with no planes in the sky, they are engaging in cash conservation in the short-run and finding alternative fundraising to be sustainable in the long run.  
  • While airlines are in discussions with their governments, countries have other many priorities now, like health and hospitals, and there will be no more free money from governments for airlines.  
  • Instead, airlines need to work with each other – airlines, airport, MRO, manufacturers etc. Airlines don’t have the balance sheets that airports do and consolidation will be essential because of reduced demand across the board and excess capacity.  
  • What makes a bankable airline for investors? Airlines all have the same overheads – and it is not necessary every airline to duplicate these. A 5-star hotel operates 5 restaurants using one kitchen. African airlines should restructure and have one centre of excellence for MRO (maintenance, repair, and operations), pilot training, finances, back-office structures. 
  • The productivity of staff and assets need to improve significantly – use fewer resources to do more work – but airlines have to balance that with an even smaller and health-conscious travelling public (crew and passengers) and extra costs of cleaning aircraft that are unbearable. Alongside that, skills are abundant as Covid has placed pilots and engineers on furlough and retrenchment.
  • But the challenge with cooperation and consolidation are different laws, regulation, politics, and bilateral agreements in every country.

Listen to the aviation webinar here. 

Absa Kenya 2019 Financial Results

Absa Kenya released its financial results for the year 2019 a year in which it completed the transition from Barclays to Absa, the third-largest financial services group in Africa.

Financial Performance: In 2019 assets grew by Kshs 50 billion to Kshs 374 billion (~$3.74 billion) which saw Absa Kenya ranked as the country’s fifth-largest bank. Deposits went up by 15% to Kshs 238 billion and loans by 10% to Kshs 194 billion. Income was up 6% over a year ago, and expenses were up 2%. Profit for the year was Kshs 12.2 billion before the exceptional item of the transitions, which continue to have an impact on their financial results, leaving a normalized after-tax profit of Kshs 8.5 billion (~$85 M).

Exceptional costs of Transition: Absa Kenya incurred an exceptional item cost of Kshs 1.5 billion, relating to the transitional services agreement with Barclays for the transition to Absa and which was completed in February 2020, ahead of schedule. During the year the bank completed the migration of over 300 technology systems including its core banking system, financial crimes altering, and card acquisition switch, that were previously housed at Barclays in the UK.

There were also the costs to rebrand 85 branches, over 200 ATM’s and 78 applications used across different platforms of the bank. The “Timiza” banking app now has 3.8 million customers and had lent over 20 billion by the end of 2019.

Investor Gains: For shareholders, the dividend for 2019 will be unchanged at Kshs 1.1 per share, comprising a final dividend of Kshs 0.9 that follows an earlier interim one of Kshs 0.2 per share. This represents a generous dividend payout of 80% of profits and currently, it is the best performing bank stock at the Nairobi Securities Exchange with a return of 39% since 2018.

Corona Virus cushion in 2020: As the world grapples with the impact of the Corona Virus outbreak, the bank has been one of the early champions of the industry reaction to enable Kenyan to continue their daily lives by encouraging customers to take up cashless transactions. Absa Kenya waived all money transfer charges between customer bank accounts and mobile wallets, including on Timiza and Pesalink while also increasing daily transition limits and also will also offer cash back of 0.3% for each use of Absa debit cards.

It also committed to ensuring that all its suppliers are paid within 14 days, with small and medium enterprise (SME) suppliers, invoicing amounts that are less than Kshs 1 million (~$10,000), to be paid within 7 days.

And in line with other banks in the country, under the Kenya Bankers Association, and guided by the Central Bank of Kenya, Absa Kenya has welcomed its customers experiencing financial strains as a result of the pandemic, to initiate discussions on restructuring of their personal and business loans, including the option of a repayment holiday of up to one year, and committed to render such decisions within seven days.