Bankelele

Uchumi: This Is It

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been writing about Uchumi Supermarkets for as long, as I’ve had this blog – about ten years. The company seems to go through a cycle every few years of capital injection, expansion & new store openings, shareholder reassurance, a few years of smooth sailing, followed by diminishing stocks of products, management change (Suresh Shah, Titus Mugo, Kennedy Thairu, Masterten-Smith, Jonathan Ciano), restatement of accounts, change of auditors, restructuring of debts etc.

At the 2010 special meeting of shareholders (during a receivership period), Kenya’s solicitor general (speaking for the government, which had bailed out the company) said nothing was fundamentally wrong with Uchumi when it collapsed, just bad governance.

But this time, it hopes to have put the past behind, and things are now looking up again for Uchumi. Its CEO, Julius Kipngetich, was on a TV blitz last week where he recapped the position that the supermarket is in and the way forward. Uchumi is now lean after laying off 2,300 staff, closing its unprofitable Uganda and Tanzania subsidiaries as well as 7 branches in Kenya, one of which was in a mall (Taj) that was going to be demolished for expansion of a highway. They are in the process of selling non-core assets (3 land properties), re-negotiating with suppliers to settle debts and (in exchange for some equity) resume supplies, and seeking a new strategic investor.

Some of these have now advanced recent announcements that most suppliers have agreed to convert some debt in exchange for about Kshs 1.8 billion of equity in the company. Also the Ngong Road Hyper branch has been sold (but Uchumi plans to continue occupying it as a tenant) and just this week the Visa Oshwal Business Community, who comprise key suppliers, agreed to resume supplying stocks, with one of them ending a lawsuit to wind up Uchumi.

Uchumi’s latest restructuring is happening is at a time when supermarkets are ‘apparently’ booming in Kenya. Nakumatt just opened its 61st stores, Naivas and Tuskys are growing, despite the family battles they have, Choppies (of Botswana) has taken over Ukwala and Carrefour has just opened at The Hub in Karen, in upmarket Nairobi.

Banks like UBA are ready to support. KCB has been a long terms banker, and Jamii Bora banks is the largest shareholder (15%) of Uchumi, closely follow by the government (14%).

Uchumi stores now have almost all products back on the shelves, but with some familiar brands still missing, for now. As the CEO, said in one interview, Uchumi aim to serve middle class consumers, who want to buy Kenyan products .

In the next three months, they hope to narrow down a strategic investor to be the anchor shareholder of Uchumi, from a pool of bidders that were invited privately.

Chase Bank to Reopen

This morning, the Governor of the Central Bank announced that Chase Bank would soon reopen. This will be facilitated by KCB, and comes a day after unconfirmed reports that QNB of Qatar was poised to win the race to take over Chase.

KCB’s credentials as a strong bank with a solid brand, adequate human resources, and wide experience in the country, will facilitate safeguarding the interests of CBL’s depositors and creditors, and the wider public interest. CBK will continue to monitor closely developments in CBL. Accordingly:  All Chase Bank Ltd (In Receivership) branches will open by Wednesday, April 27, 2016. The online and mobile banking services will also become available. However, branches may initially offer limited banking services.

Bank Capital Raising Season

Away from the Chase Bank saga, banks continue to raise money to support their fast growth in recent years. It’s a bit harder to raise money and it’s clear the Imperial Bank fallout affected other bond and stock offerings that came in its wake.

In the News

Family Bank has a rights issue coming up, to be approved by shareholders.
Duet Private Equity Limited, part of the Duet Group, will inject Ksh1.9 billion into Fidelity Commercial Bank to strengthen the Bank’s core capital, and support its local and regional growth strategy.
EDIT Jamii Bora Bank just raised $12 million through two Private Equity funds – Equator Capital Partners (through its managed fund, ShoreCap II) and Progression Capital Africa (through through its managed fund, Progression Eastern African Microfinance Equity Fund).
KCB Group shareholders are to approve a rights issue and (another) name change to KCB Plc. KCB is also paying shareholders a Kshs 2 dividend, with Kshs 1 in cash, and the other Kshs 1 as a scrip dividend. The intent of this is to allow its Shareholders to derive value on account of higher dividend in future due to increased shareholding. This is automatic, but shareholders have the option to receive the Kshs 1 in cash by filling and returning a scrip election form to the bank by June 17. If all shareholders opt for the scrip, and get new shares at a price of Kshs 38 per share, this will increase the number of KCB shares by 2.5%.
National Bank was expected to have a rights issues in 1Q2016, and the government expected to raise Kshs 4.99 billion from a the issue in February 2016. The process has been delayed and it now appears that NBK may still be combined with two other smaller state-controlled banks – Consolidated Bank and the Development Bank of Kenya.
Sidian Bank (formerly K-Rep), is expecting its minority shareholders to provide Kshs 400 million capital to support its growth plans.The new capital comes after the majority shareholder, Centum Investment, injected its share of Kshs 1.2 billion last year after raising its stake in the lender to 67.5%.. Sidian chief executive officer Titus Karanja said “They gave us their commitments and we are expecting the money by end of May.”
SMEP Microfinance Bank shareholders are expected to have a rights issue to increase their share capital, issue a bonus (1 for every 6 held), and also create an employee share option program (ESOP). They will target less than 100 people or institutions for the privately placed capital raising.
EDIT Credit Bank expects that Fountain Enterprises Programme (FEP Holdings) will pay Kshs 5.4 billion for an additional 70% stake in the bank..via a private offer priced at Kshs180 apiece and limited to members of the chama (investment club) which has a large following in the UK and US.

Away from right issues, some banks have recently signed funding deals:

CfC Stanbic Bank signed a $135 milllion dual tranche term loan facility in which Emirates NBD Capital Limited (ENBD) and Mashreqbank PSC were the Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners of the financing. The financing, which will be used for general corporate purposes, including, trade-related finance, was oversubscribed from the initial launch amount of US$ 100,000,000.
Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) and Standard Bank of Southern Africa (SBSA) executed a $25 million cross-currency repo transaction. The deal, facilitated and guaranteed by Frontclear, is a first of its kind transaction and paves the way to a more robust, stable and inclusive interbank market in Kenya. In the transaction, CBA receives $25 million in 1-year funding from SBSA and provides Government of Kenya Bonds as collateral.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) recently extended a $40 million, 10-year line of credit to the East African Development Bank (EADB) towards support of regional infrastructure, manufacturing, agribusiness and education sectors with a bid to increase economic and government revenue growth in the member countries.

Not forgetting Chase Bank:

The Chase Bank bond that was oversubscribed last year was suspended. The bank had also undertaken a private placement in which high net worth investors bought shares at Kshs 2,760 each. Chase Bank had said that proceeds of the private offer would be used to shore up the lender’s thinning capital ratios, grow the loan book and invest in technology.

What other bank rights issues are there?

$1 = Kshs 102.

Kenya Bank Rankings 2015: Part I

Ranked by assets (and placing in 2014)

1 (1) KCB [Assets of Kshs 467 billion ($4.59 billion), and profits of Kshs 23.44 billion ($230 million)]

2 (3) Equity Bank

3 (2) Cooperative

4 (4) Barclays

5 (5) Standard Chartered

6 (7) CFC Stanbic Bank

7 (6) Commercial Bank of Africa

8 (8) Diamond Trust

9 (10) NIC

10 (9) Investment & Mortgages

Two banks in the news over their FY 2015 results

11 (12) Chase: Assets of Kshs 143 billion ($1.4 billion), and a pre-tax loss of Kshs 1.1 billion ($10.8 million)

12 (11) National: Assets of Kshs 125 billion $1.22 billion) and a pre-tax loss of Kshs 1.68 billion ($16.5 million)

$1 = Kshs 102