Bankelele

Reading the Tea leaves at Centum, Kenya Airways, Safaricom – Part II

Follow up from two years ago

Three companies that had their year-end in March 2016 have just published their annual reports which are now found on their individual websites. On Thursday both Centum and Kenya Airways boards will face their shareholders at the annual general meetings (AGM’s). Centum is ending a 9 year dividend drought, and Kenya Airways which had another a record-breaking loss, now believes the worst os now behind them. Meanwhile Safaricom will create 6 ‘mini-Safaricoms’ that operate in six Kenya regions and create more segment products like Blaze.

Centum:

Has a (massive 192) page annual report (up from 160 pages), and the company has 37,325 shareholders.
Will pay Kshs 665 million in dividend (1/= per share) ending a long dividend drought (since 2009)
Significant joint ventures are Amu Power (51%) and Two Rivers Lifestyle Center (50% – following a partial disposal). Old Mutual advanced Kshs 5.7 billion to Two Rivers with the debt convertible to 40% in the equity of Two Rivers, with shareholders loans previously held by AVIC and ICDC offset against the consideration. Further developments at Two Rivers include luxury apartments, a five-star hotel and residences, a healthcare facility and additional structured parking. Property owners who have purchased plots at Two Rivers include South Africa’s City Lodge Hotel group who are establishing a three star hotel; and Victoria Bank, who are constructing an office block.
The completion of the transaction on disposal of interest in Two Rivers and the acquisition of additional interest in Kilele, Sidian Bank and Almasi resulted in a net gain on disposal recorded in equity of Kshs 2.5 billion.
The half-year report will be available online to shareholders who register.
NAS, where they own 15% will continue diversifying its income streams by launching two Burger King restaurant franchise outlets in Kenya.
Will enter the healthcare business with a significant investment this year
Centrum plans to build 20 schools across Africa in the next three to five years, as part of a tripartite consortium with SABIS and Investbridge Capital. The consortium has acquired a suitable site along Kiambu Road that will host the first SABIS school in Sub-Saharan Africa, offering both 8-4-4 and K-12 education curricula with a capacity of up to 1,700 students.
In agri-business, Centum incorporated Greenblade Growers and acquired a 120 acre farm in Ol Kalou that will be used for value addition and will have a capacity to process 10 tonnes of fresh produce per day, to key export markets of Netherlands and later the UK.
Energy: to date, the company has invested Kshs 3.1 billion in the development of two landmark projects – Amu Power and Akiira One Geothermal.
At the AGM, Centum Chairman James Muguiyi, retires after 13 years and also the Principal Secretary – Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives, (representing the Kenya government) will retire from the board and not seek re-election.
Shareholders will be asked to approve the incorporation of Zohari Leasing, Rea Power Company, Le Marina (Uganda) and Two Rivers Development Phase Two. Also that the acquisition of 100% shares of Vipingo Estates and an additional 29% of Longhorn Publishers be ratified (they paid Kshs 393 million for the new shares).
Shareholders will also approve a name change from Centum Investment Ltd. to Centum Investment PLC.
Shareholders will approve an indemnity of the company directors .. against all relevant loss including any liability incurred by him (her) in defending any civil or criminal proceedings.. the directors may decide to purchase and maintain insurance, at the expense of the company.

Kenya Airways (KQ)

The report is 149 pages (up from 130 pages) and KQ has 78,577 shareholders (a slight increase as their share price has dipped)
The Group operates domestic flights and flies to 53 destinations in Africa, Middle East, Asia and Europe.
After their 31 March 2016 year-end, they received Kshs 10 billion from the Government of Kenya, (being the second and final tranche of the KShs 20 billion (US$ 200 million) bridge financing that has been on-lend from African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank), and they sub-leased two Boeing 787 & three Boeing 777-300 aircraft as part of the turnaround initiatives in order to improve its liquidity position.
JamboJet tax losses stood at Kshs 856 million, and Kenyan income tax laws allow for carry forward of tax losses for a maximum period of 10 years.
Short term facilities were drawn down from Equity Bank, Jamii Bora Bank, Kenya Commercial Bank, Commercial Bank of Africa, I & M Bank, Chase bank, National Bank of Kenya, Diamond Trust Bank, Co-operative Bank, NIC bank and Eco bank. During the year, the airline negotiated for extended repayment periods for all short-term loans ranging from 4 – 7 years except for Kenya Commercial bank. The Government of Kenya Loan is at 10.20% far much more than previous financing that was at 4-7%. Citi JP Morgan Kshs 78 billion is at 1.5% , Afrexim Bank 23 billion is at 4%, while other short-term Kshs 22 billion is at 9%
In addition to the Kenya government, KLM, and IFC, top 10 shareholders now include Mike Maina Kamau, Vijay Kumar Ratilal Shah, Gulamali Ismail and Galot International.
They implemented a business class upgrade system in January 2016, under which economy class passengers can bid & buy upgrades to fly on business class.
A total of 63 bird strikes were reported in the year (down from 77 last year).

Safaricom

The report is 172 pages (up from 136 pages) and the company has 600,000 shareholders (down from 660,000).
At the AGM a few weeks ago, shareholders approved payment of a dividend for Kshs 0.76 per share for 2016 and also a special bonus dividend of Kshs 0.68 per share.
According to a True Value report (they commissioned it, and it was done by KPMG), the total value the company contributed to Kenyan society in FY15 was Kshs 315 billion and they sustained over 682,000 jobs.
Bonga points totaling Kshs 3.2 billion are a liability to be converted to revenue as customers utilize their points
Lent Kshs 500 million to Safaricom money transfer services, a subsidiary that derives revenue from international money transfer services.
The license fee for M-pesa dropped from 10% to 5% from August 2015.
Donated Kshs 414 million to the Safaricom foundation
Spent Kshs 9.3 billion on the National Police Service communication project that’s now 92% complete.
They now require all new business partners to sign up to the “code of ethics for businesses in Kenya” during the on boarding process, and 269 companies have signed this.
They were fined Kshs 157 million by the Communications Authority of Kenya for not complying with its quality of service thresholds.

Capping Kenya Bank Interest Rates – Part II

Today Kenya bank CEO’s met with the Central bank governor. They again stated their opposition to the interest rate capping act from parliament in an innovative and free market country, and urged the urged the president to refer the bill back to parliament for more consultations. They noted that between 35% to 44% of new loans would be locked out due to their risk classification.

They also announced a raft of measures to assuage customer dissatisfaction with the banking sector including:

A commitment to reduce interest rates in line with the KBRR (The Kenya Banks’ Reference Rate which was reduced from 9.87% to 8.9%) on July 25, 2016
Cancellation of account closing charges.
A commitment to set aside Kshs 30 billion to finance small & medium enterprises, of which Kshs 10 billion would go to women and youth-owned micro enterprises – at not more than 14.5%. The allocation of each bank will be tracked and reported on a quarterly basis from November.
A commitment to classify customers at credit reference bureaus as low, medium and high risk and align interest rates to match such borrowers.
Re-launching the cost of credit web site to include bank loan data enabling loan applicants to easily compare bank products
Promoting alternative dispute resolution.

These are all things banks should have been doing, but were not. The statement also noted that the banks pay Kshs 69 billion per year in taxes (corporation, excise, PAYE) and that the new bill would reduce income to the government by at least Kshs 17 billion. But this is at a time when Safaricom alone paid Kshs 63 billion to the government as taxes and licence fees.

$1 = Ksh 101

Safaricom Bonus

Yesterday Safaricom announced an interim dividend of Kshs 0.68 per share and this will add up to a payment to their 600,000+ shareholders of Kshs 27.5 billion. This is in addition to the Kshs 0.76 per share dividend for the year which ended in March 2016

Bob Collymore, CEO of Safaricom, said: “There is room for this one-off special dividend of Ksh27.5bn due to the cash position of the company, and the significant retained earnings of Ksh82bn. This is an additional dividend to what we expect to recommend at next year’s AGM for the year ended 31st March 2017. The special interim dividend will be paid out on or prior to 1st December 2016.”

But investment analyst Sunil Sanger points out that Safaricom may have erred in the timing of this announcement.

It’s been a busy week at Safaricom who also announced a commitment to promote the use of renewable energy, opened a 45th retail shop at The Hub in Karen, Nairobi (they will open 5 others in Nairobi and Rift Valley) and also dropped roaming charges for voice and data calls for 200 networks in 52 countries including Tanzania, China, Dubai, UK, USA, South Africa, Ghana, Netherlands, DRC, Germany, Italy, Nigeria, Australia, Botswana, Cameroon, Denmark, Finland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Mozambique, Pakistan, Singapore, Spain, and Thailand.

In China, for example, Safaricom subscribers roaming on China Mobile will now be charged Sh50 to call back home and enjoy a low of Sh10 per minute to call within China, down from the former rate of Sh360 and Sh130 respectively. Data pricing will fall to Sh14 per MB while roaming on China Mobile and China Unicom, down from the previous rate of Sh1, 900.

$1 = Kshs 100

Automate Your Pension

It’s quite clear that we are all our own worst enemies when it comes to saving for the future or for pension schemes and eventual retirement. The desire to spend for needs and wants today overrides the prudence of setting aside a few shillings periodically.

There are so some of the common clichés about good savings:

Use the power of compounding interest.
Put your money to work for you.
Spend less than you earn.

They are sensible, but not always easy to do. One solution to this is to automate the savings process. This is to take the decision out of our hands. Stop trying to save by writing a cheque or taking cash to put in a saving account at the bank. Automating savings saves the hassle and removes this difficult decision and choice to sacrifice today for a better tomorrow. (Don’t Kulegalega!)

Automate, and lock away your pension.

If someone is employed, their employer can deduct money on behalf of an employee through payroll and add it to a registered pension scheme. This has an extra benefit of being tax-free up to Kshs 20,000 (~$200) or 1/3 of salary per month. If someone is self-employed they can have their bank deduct a fixed amount each month via a standing order and send it to the pension company. One should use a bank that allows a free standing-order, or one that is reasonably low in cost (e.g Kshs 100) for the transfer every month.

The amount channeled to pensions as savings (whether it’s Kshs 3,000 or 5,000 or 20,000 per month) should be a comfortable one that if someone loses their job, they won’t want to suspend making savings installments immediately, People often want to stop payment or to liquidate their savings for emergencies, or other reasons and some pension plans are now adding insurance windows so that people can draw money for emergencies, without interrupting their savings.

Mobile phone companies intermediation in the financial sector has brought financial products within reach of millions of Kenyans that traditional commercial banks were not serving. This is now coming to the savings markets too, and with Safaricom’s M-Pesa, one can lock an amount periodically by sweeping up the balance in one’s M-pesa account. For now, that money goes to a fixed deposit account, not a pension, but that should change in the future.

Over Kshs 20 billion of payments are made on Safaricom’s Lipa Na M-Pesa service each month, while Equitel, Equity Bank’s phone payment platform, processed Kshs 62.4 billion worth of transactions in the first quarter of 2016. Hopefully, more of these payments will go towards savings and pensions, and preferably through one of the Retirement Benefit Authority (RBA- registered) service providers.

$1 = Kshs 100