Category Archives: Nation Media Group

Bloggers and forums

tribes & stocks: The recent closure of the popular mashada forums could easily have spilt over to the popular shares forum Stocks Kenya had the administrators not put out an appeal for Peace and Reconciliation in Kenya;

We have reduced focus on politics in the discussion forum as the forum it has been abused.

Thankfully it has maintained its tone for corporate and investment issues where the hot discussion topic is now East African Cables, not politics

And Mashada regulars are invited to visit ihavenotribe instead.

Media blogs: The Standard quietly added a blog page with star commentators late last year but without much fanfare and they are not given any prominence on the front page of the newspapers’ website. At least hen the Nation launched their blog page they ran a few columns in the paper itself to promote the feature.

Salute: To Afromusing for a small mention in the Economist on twittering.

Media gags the public?

strange times these: The leadership forum has brought some great talks with great Q&A sessions with leaders like John Gakuo and Michael Joseph; but when we invite the Nation Media Group CEO Linus Gitahi to talk about Africa’s Competitive Advantage In The Global Market Place – he will respond to questions posed by the audience in advance. – strange change of format, and we don’t even know what he will say.

Bank Review ‘07: Part 1

the bottom 5

The low end of the banking sector showed little growth in loans or deposits – bank sizes are stagnant.

40. City Finance: (last year 42) Estimated assets of 650 million shillings ($9.28 million) and loss of 20 million shillings in 2007. Kenya’s smallest bank was taken over by the Baraka Fund late in the year, and is expected to be recapitalized and turned around from 2008.

39. (41) Dubai: Estimated 1,480 million assets, profit of 10m shillings.
Growth of about 3% this year, but the bank will have achieve a smaller profit than last year. Its niche branch in Eastleigh and foreign remittance product has found increased competition.

38. (40) Oriental: Estimated 1,732m in assets and profit of 200 million. The perennial loss making Oriental bank (formerly BCCI and Delphis) was recapitalized and is on track for a profit this year following a payment from the Governments’ financial restructuring of Miwani Sugar company which owed the bank a significant debt.

37. (39) Paramount Universal : Estimated 2,258 billion and profit of 45 million. Growth in assets, deposits, and loans flat this year but at least is profitable.

36. (37) Transnational: Estimated 3.03 billion ($43 million) in assets, and 90 million ($1.3m) in profit for 2007. A quiet year for the bank which introduced a Fanikisha product for customers to save money and buy IPO shares on the NSE

Bank story of the week

Which way Equity?: It’s rare to see two sides of a story from the same editorial team – but it has happened on the controversial shielding of Equity Bank’s new shareholders with the Nation newspaper editorial defending the exemption granted by the Finance Minister, after the influential Business Daily editorial (sister newspaper in the Nation Media Group) had strongly opposed the same.

Economic Matrix


watch me inflate my salary while dodging taxes

This week has been spent learning the ropes of learning new core banking system. We are in a test module, posting transactions and simulating scenarios, testing what/if limits of the system. So I can award myself a seven digit salary increase, borrow ten times that amount, draw cheques, and even transfer funds from someone else’s account to repay my loan, all at the click of a button – a real Cool world.

This week our members of parliament gave us another bile inducing moment with yet another attempt to raise their salaries. These are people who live in an economic matrix where they believe that ordinary laws do not apply to them. They raise their own salaries (which other job can claim that?), pay a pittance in taxes, and are able to propose and play with myriad bills – that all concern other peoples money. From day one, when they blackmailed arm-twisted the then Finance Minister (2003) to increase their salaries they have been on a tear as the rest of the country watches. Now there’s a proposal to increased their number either through more constituencies or women seats. I’d like to see more women parliamentarians, but I believe i can already name most of the women MP’s who will sit in parliament next year – just add up all the defeated candidates and past women MP’s, and activists and you get an idea of the next group to get paid by the exchequer. As much as this parliament has accomplished – sexual offenses bill, CDF, education, health, anti-corruption etc. – this parliament will be remembered for salary increases and lack of quorum.

As a citizen, I applaud the economic gains made, but as a taxpayer I lament the waste that the increased tax collection has not been prudently applied. We don’t need more ministers or MP’s who live an economic matrix of their own.

Anyway, on to other news

Barclays
– has opened 32 branches since it’s change of direction last year
– You can pay for Kenya Re and other shares with Barclays Visa card at Sterling, Suntra, CFC, Ashbu and Discount stockbrokers.
– Barclays stretching personal loan repayments from 1 year to 5 years. This way, they will earn more money interest income while postponing some potentially bad debts (in duplum era) after co-op bank did the same earlier this year.

– CFC has an arrangement with postal corporation of Kenya to enable people to buy shares at post offices throughout Kenya. This is the third major attempt to extend a stockbroker’s reach after Suntra/Postbank and K-Rep/Ngenye Kariuki partnerships.

Equity bank to take up 20% of housing finance. Spruce up on the banking act, as this is not a popular activity with the Central bank i.e. banks owning shares in other banks. Still, it’s amazing how many records Equity continues to break. Last year, they attained the billion shilling profit mark; this year, they achieved that in six months

ICDCI stock to watch according to bloggers – Fintrade Capital and Smart Biz Africa

National bank: Having sorted out its non performing debt problem, will it become a target for Stanbic again, after CFC merger is done? Also Equity is a long shot

NIC: In the week it was dropped from the 20 share index (in favor of ICDCI), it was also the best performing stock after announcing a rights issue and bonus share proposal . This former Barclays subsidiary has been the leading provider of asset finance to individuals and corporations in Kenya.

Other

Kenya Airways receives the first Embraer 170 LR(two more to follow) plane which will serve Zanzibar, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam routes.

Nation media group has had another record profit half year and an interim dividend of 3/= to be paid. They launched the business daily a few months ago, but could they be about to launch yet another newspaper in September?

It may be called the Daily Star, and will come a few months after Kiss FM’s Nairobi Star. Both Business daily and the Nairobi Star (where’s the John Githongo column and news website?)have faded somewhat from public presence of mind since their high profile launches. B-Daily is a great read online, and should remain so.

The Minister of Finance talks about having virtual meeting to cut costs – perhaps like Vodafone which has an AGM page with webcast and voting items online

Award opportunity
opportunity for 5 dynamic African companies from either Burundi Rwanda Tanzania Uganda or Kenya to earn up to $50,000.

Nation Business Daily

The Nation Media Group started publishing the new business daily on Wednesday March 7.

It was first mentioned at the Nation AGM in May 2006 and it hit the streets just three months after a new look Nation was published on December 1.

I hope they consulted their readers like the Wall Street Journal did before they also made changes last year. The WSJ is one of the few to increase subscribers (10%) at a time when most newspapers and magazines are experiencing declines.

Newspaper affordability
Three days out and I am one of the few who has bought all issues so far at 50 shillings ($0.70) each. I don’t expect to be a long-term customer since I can read most of the stories I see online at their site or elsewhere (feeds of WSJ online). But if one is not net savvy, the stories are new and different. However I expect that it’s only a matter of time before the stories also become subscriber only like the rest of Nation magazines

I have no loyalty to papers to buy, two on Sunday and either Nation or Standard on any other day depending on which is more appealing (preferably less party politics). Like many (cheap) Kenyans I buy one and get a free newspaper i.e. in exchange for buying a paper, the vendor allows me flip through the Nation or Standard (which are sold for 35/= or $0.50 on week days) before I decide which one to buy. The arrival of the business daily shakes up my vendor’s math – and he’s taking a few days to judge the demand /sort out his orders (he sells 50 Nation and 20 Standard) to motorists as he jogs round traffic jams. He doesn’t understand why the Business Daily was launched, and though he has sold out his few copies, he grumbles that it will reduce his sales of the Nation (which is twice the size but costs 30% less than the B.Daily)

Business without Politics?
Is there enough business news to put out a daily newspaper? Yes there is… we all say we are tired of the media obsessing with politics and politicians. But the Nation already has about half its papers with comprehensive business magazines (Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday- and the East African on Monday). The Standard has also has a business magazine on Monday & Tuesday, (stopped publishing an Executives magazine on Wednesday) as well as a focus on the transportation industry on Thursday. Also, the Kenya Times has comprehensive business writing each week day and it the only newspaper still has all its business stories online free.

Still, when you look at the papers the business daily is emulating – Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, or even the economist, they all have comprehensive political coverage because you can’t separate politics from the world economy. E.g. you can’t talk about Airbus problems and future without mentioning the interests/wishes of the French government and also understand what the presidential candidates in France have said and in the same way you can’t talk about the issues at KPLC, Kengen, and EAPC without understanding their status as parastatals that are influenced by the politics of government.

tweaking
Some things I’d like to see if asked
– More risk/breaking stories. NTV reporter Robert Nagila has spent a few months doing an expose on dubious procurement contract at a cement company that has been the lead story on NTV news at 9 p.m. several times. But the Daily Nation has not published these findings comprehensively (maybe fear of lawsuits) even as management of the company have paid for rebuttal statements to run in the Nation. The WSJ goal of having 80% exclusive content should be aimed for.
– Some signature writers – like the East African has regular columnists with interesting observation and opinions. who also writes for Nation, Standard has battery who normally write on politics.
– Give an MD a column each week to write about business, economy, investments etc. anything except their company or industry. This should not be an interview and encourage them to make it a personal piece, not a PR team effort
– Index of people names in addition that of companies on page 2.
– Cartoons like the Boondocks, crosswords, advertisements
– More contributor content; this is not easy to manage but newspapers should not wish away their readers contributions. Newspapers often make reference to reports or features and liberally borrow material that appears in blogs or “Kenyan websites” as a by the way without mentioning what they are. e.g. interest rate or stockbroker woe tales.

Future Outlook
The Business Daily, priced at 50 shillings should be a test balloon of the market. Nation executives have often stated that they wish to increase the price of the paper to offset increased production costs. That sometime in 2005/06 both nation and standard increased the price of their Saturday paper from 35 to 40 on the same day was not a coincidence.

By combining both the Business Daily (as Section B of the Daily Nation) they can go ahead and raise the price of daily paper to 50 or 55 shillings and still not lose readers to the competition.

News

Marshals: With no big pickup, SUV, or affordable small cars from Peugeot to sell, the company is cutting back – they have moved from their Sarit center showroom as well as marshals house site (used to be showroom, and workshop) on harambee avenue which has now been advertised for rent now its owner – the central bank staff pension fund who also have put up a new office block opp. Yaya center in Kilimani

Billionaire’s hotel: Flavio Briatore, the Renault F1 team boss will open a luxury beach resort in Malindi later this year.

Soccer dream alive: breathing a sigh of relief at the lifting of the FIFA ban on Kenya will be UAP Insurance and its policy holders who have invested in world cup savings plan – but who may had had a difficult time obtaining match tickets as FIFA would not have allocated Kenya a quota to sell.

Go zero: Safaricom has often been asked about why it hoards your 10 shillings (phone balance never went below 10 shillings) but they have now removed that floor and subscribers can now talk/SMS their way down to 1 shilling.

New airline Virgin Atlantic starts flights to Kenya on June 1 and the airline is seeking airline call center & ticketing agents, call center/ticketing supervisor, turnaround coordinators, area sales executives and airport duty managers to apply online for jobs by 18/3

Other Opportunities

Bidco: team leaders (finance & accounts) accountants (Jinja) , cost accountant head communications & PR, marketing officers, head(s) export sales & distribution, regional head(s) sales & distribution, territory sales supervisors, area – sales in charge, head – logistics, head – purchase, engineers, graduate trainee engineers, ICT systems analysts and others. Apply to careers1@bidco-oil.com by 19/3

Equity Bank: relationship managers, customer service representatives. Apply to jobs@ebsafrica.co.ke by 23/3

Emirates airlines cabin crew. Apply online by 1/4

Erastus & Co CPA: audit associates (2), auditor seniors (2) tax & service supervisor. Apply to erastus@nbnet.co.ke by 20/3

Regional sales representatives at Jamii. D/L is 20/3

Market research & planning manager at KCB. apply to Divisional director HR 48400-00100 by 19/3

Managing Director at Kenya Film Corporation apply through manpower & associates by 23 /3

Media Edge: client service executives, editor, and creative graphic designers. Apply to info@mediaedgeint.com by 14/3

Grants officer at save the children. apply to vacancies@scuk.or.ke by 21/3

Branch manager at Southern Credit bank. apply to hr@southerncredit.co.ke by 21/3

World Bank Somalia community driven recovery /& development t (CDR/CDD) project: civil engineering officer, monitoring & evaluation officer, and coordinator CDR/CDD project. Apply online by 21/3

Grants accountant at world vision south Sudan. apply to recruitsdn@wvi.org by 19/3

Scholarships: Chinese / Kenya government scholarships – undergraduate (12), post graduate (10) – full scholarships (inclusive of air travel).. D/L is 15/3 to the PS Ministry of Education

Media awards. Marekebisho awards from GJLOS – open only to journalists why? who work for media houses. Three awards each for print (local, regional or national newspaper) and electronic (local, national, regional TV/radio) journalists for work they publish between January 1 and May 31 2007. D/L is 31/5