Category Archives: obama

Kutwa Tuesday: Sam’s Kids


They may be called Barack, Michelle, Obama, or other creative names, but many of these new kids born and given fabulous American
baby Obama names were conceived as a result of Uncle Sam’s bungled election debacle in December 2007.

Opportunities

Airbus University Challenge: the Airbus
Fly Your Ideas challenge is open to university students around the world with ideas on the future of aviation and improving its environmental position. Prizes are €30,000 and deadline is 1st December 2008

Georgetown Fellowships Apply for the Georgetown University Law Center’s Global Health Law Fellowship Program. D/L is February 16 2009

Kenya Content Conference Tandaa 08 a local content conference sponsored by the Kenya ICT Board takes place on November 14 2008.

Kenya’s Top Women The Business Daily invites you to nominate Kenya’s Top 40 women under 40. send their names, contracts and reasons why they are worthy (in less than 500 words) to top40under40@nation.co.ke by 30th November

Government of Kenya jobs:
– Judiciary 25 resident magistrates. D/L 21/11
– Electoral commission of Kenya – 39 district election coordinators

Biz brief’s

Co-Op IPO: is 1/3 of the way to target with just 3 days to go optimistic about the Co-Op IPO. transaction advisers have now released cash flow and share price projections that should have been in the Co-Op Prospectus. what happens if they fall short – will D&B pay C-op for the shortfall? Is there a last minute investor who will get preferential terms to bridge the gap? The prospectus states that in the event that this minimum amount is not attained, approval may be sought from the Authority to proceed with the listing of the existing shares and any Offer Shares that are subscribed under the Offer.

I got an SMS (as did other Co-op customers) inviting me to take part, but the application desks/tents still look rather forlorn

Equity – HF: November 4 was not just Obama day, but also the date when the Housing Finance and Equity Bank deals should have been completed

Foreign Investors Tough times for the former Rift Valley Railways and Tiomin who continue to flounder: Tiomin’s latest statement notes. …. the Government of Kenya has not completed the remaining bureaucratic steps required for the transaction to close…..Tiomin’s management shares our investors’ extreme frustration at this unreasonable delay….. Tiomin has acted in good faith and we are very disappointed….. If the closing continues to be delayed, we will consider terminating the MOU on the grounds of unreasonable delay….. Tiomin will issue another press release when further material information is available. Pity they have no local defenders

Geothermal prospects : two companies are scoping in Eburu (gilgil) and Menengai for geothermal energy

Brew turf Coca Cola launch minute maid juices in Kenya (what happens to 5 alive) as EABL launch Alvaro in Uganda

Sat-TV: DSTV will launch pre-paid scratch cards, following in the footsteps of rival GTV who are reaping from the ongoing English premier league

Insurance by M-Pesa: Madison Insurance now accepting insurance installment payments by M-Pesa following Old Mutual, which enabled investment, plan payments

Radio Standard Group prematurely possible radio investment worth Kshs 250 million as KISS FM parent Radio Africa rolls out their 4th radio station – XFM (rock music)

President Obama

Congratulations to Barack Obama the next President of the United States of America. His name has appeared in these pages five times before today:

– April 2005: Congratulations to Wangari Maathai and Barack Obama for making the 2005 Time Magazine Heroes list. However I fear this achievement will be overshadowed be overshadowed by the drama surrounding Presidential wives.
– August 2007: After Oprah endorsed Obama , I endorsed Jonathan Mueke who was gunning for the Westlands MP seat
– January 2008: One review of the post-election violence in Kenya found that in the pre-election period, the (Kenyan) opposition may have been falsely buoyed by opinion polls which are not sound (& could the same thing have happened to Obama in New Hampshire?)
– Also in January 2008 mused that President Obama needs Equity Bank because 46% of African American household’s don’t have bank accounts – and he should borrow Equity Bank’s revolutionary model to bring banking to the unbanked.
– April 2008: In queing for the Safaricom IPO refers to a Kenyan habit of waiting till the last minute to do things as Obama also took a long time to warp up his party nomination.

Here’s to many more mentions, starting with – US stocks reacted positively on election day, and in the post election victory celebration the Nairobi Stock Exchange(NSE) has also rallied [Top gainers according to stockskenya – National Bank +9.94, CFC +9.91, Kenya Airways +9.91, Sasini +9.83, Diamond Trust +9.79 with no losers yet]

Kutwa: Tuesday: Pick out a positive story

Bank Round-up
– Co-op Bank extends its banking hours from the now less-traditional 9 to 3 to 9 a.m. to 4. p.m. daily and up to noon on Saturdays.

– bold Equity Bank announced plans last week to open new branches in Kisumu, but that was before a new outbreak of violence over the weekend and the fatal shooting of an opposition MP this morning.

– The Business Daily reports that West African giant Ecobank, plans to take over a majority stake in limping mortgage bank EABS whose recent growth had lagged most of its peers

– NIC Bank to convert this cashless ATM points into full branches and expand its network.

capital flight: A leading multi-national bank is considering moving an African operations department out of Nairobi, and to another country. The amount of capital flight (money leaving the country) is also at an alarming high.

Other sectors
– Valentine’s day massacre?; What does Naivasha flare up mean for some flower farms who Valentine’s Day (Feb 14) shipment/sales can account for up to ½ their turnover in a year ?
– Nairumor that a blue chip CEO and turnaround specialist will resign next month in search of (foreign) greener pastures
– The Harvard Business School’s Africa Business Conference is on February 15-17, 2008 in Boston MA. Details from YAP
– Some troubling signs and even more today.
– Another regional airline upstart is Executive Turbine, flying 4X weekly to Kisumu for Kshs. 3,540 ($70). Regional airlines should be added to the earlier post on election winners.

Trivia
– Will ‘President Obama’ need Equity Bank? – because 46% of African American household’s don’t have bank accounts – he can tap Equity Bank’s revolutionary model to bring banking to the unbanked.

– wish I was in France: It’s better to be a rogue trader facing charges for misplacing $7 billion. But it’s also a reminder that financial shenanigans are still rarely punished and prosecuted in Kenya. E.g. Francis Thuo. (and maybe Mr. Kerviel would rather have worked for a Kenyan bank instead)

Kutwa Tuesday – June 26

Uchumi revealed: Shedding some light on the Uchumi bond proposal, the receiver manager has stated that the problems that shut down Uchumi had more to do with management style than the market conditions. The newspaper says that the 650 million to be raised, 280 million will go to pay suppliers & creditors, 23 million interest on (bank) loans, 52m to pay terminal benefits of staff, 200m working capital as the company plans to open 3 new branches in Mombasa, Nairobi, and Kisumu.

The article adds that all suppliers have been paid for deliveries made in the last 12 months i.e. the company is profitable. The company had sales of Kshs. 1.3 billion in the first quarter of the year and had 2.8 million shoppers visit their stores. Sarit is their best store with April revenue of 90 million followed by Ngong Rd hyper with 68m (last was Eldoret with 8m) from an offline story in the financial standard.

Note: even if they re-list, won’t they be in the same boat as NBK and be unable to pay dividends for several years?

Rights Issue: Olympia’s rights issue was formally announced today with an offer for shareholders to buy 3 shares for each held.

Newspapers: New newspaper from the KISS team – called the Nairobi Star and billing itself as Kenya’s first full-color daily newspaper launches next week
– But what happened to the Kenya Times website frozen on June 8?

Trade not aid: According to an Oxfam report subsidies are responsible for poverty among African cotton farmers.

Political worm: Raila Odinga gets unfairly blamed for a lot of things, but he is not responsible for a malicious computer virus bearing his name that has caused IT admin’s some headaches this month

uh oh: Why is Obama’s campaign getting stuck?

uh oh 2: Sad to read that former track darling Marion Jones is
almost broke. Even though she wasn’t a big spender like Tyson or Jackson, legal bills fending off drug allegations have taken their toll on her finances.

Uh oh 3 & 4 : Zimbabwe to do a takeover of foreign businesses as Uganda parliamentarians have given Barclays, Sheraton, Kakira Sugar, and Uganda Telecom one year to float part of their share on the Uganda stock exchange.

War what is it good for? Is there a difference between Somalia, Darfur and Palestine?

Kenyan Heroes

Congratulations to (1) Wangari Maathai and (1/2) Barack Obama for making the 2005 Time Magazine Heroes list. However, I fear this achievement will be overshadowed by the drama surrounding Presidential wives.