The 86th annual general meeting (AGM) of East African Breweries was held on 30/10/08 at Safari Park Hotel. The actual meeting business (passing of accounts, election of directors, and approval of auditors) all took about 10 minutes. There was only one question on the accounts and the rest of the meeting was left to a myriad of shareholder questions.
Why Financial Markets Crashed: The meeting began with a talk from the former chairman of the Nairobi Stock exchange Kibuga Kariithi (Director Afrika Investment Bank). He traced a path of American economic exuberance, greedy investment bankers, sub-prime-mortgages, careless insurers which all led to a liquidity crunch and loss of confidence in the markets – eventually reached Kenya
He exhorted EABL shareholders that their company was strong, with growing sales, profits, products and almost 7 billion shillings in the bank. He said the market would remain so for a few more months, maybe with a few more bank crashes, but the fundamentals of EABL and other companies were strong and this was a time for shareholders not to panic or sell, but to consider buying more shares.
Mini-controversies:
- Crap Calendar: One of the goodies handed out was a (single-sheet) wall calendar. Which was not well received by several shareholders. It was called, cheap, not in keeping with the image of the company, not as good as the one which was given to distributors, and eventually, even the chairman had to admit that it was a poor quality item.
- End for Chami?: Mr. Chami is a (small) shareholder in almost every listed company and a feature at almost all NSE-listed company AGM’s held. He unusually is the first to ask any questions and almost all directors know him. He usually asks but occasionally hits the mark. Today he got off to a bad start giving a 5 minutes speech that led to a round of boos by shareholders. When he finally got to asking questions, he was challenged by the Chairman on the accuracy and validity of his questions – and told not to waste the time of the other 700 shareholders present if he had no questions. Hope it does not spread to other meetings
Mr. ChamiTrivia some questions asked by shareholders
- Start with prayers
- More environmental plans; will consider energy savings from steam and have participated in forestry activities in Ndakaini and may look at (the) Mau when government sorts out the matter
- Unclaimed dividend: a bill has been prepared on unclaimed assets that will soon be in parliament after which companies will get guidelines on compliance
- Is Alvaro alcoholic? No it is not
- Can dividend be cashed at banks?
- Give more bonus shares please?
- Give more dividend to long term shareholders – asked by an old lady who has been a shareholder for 35 years)
- Can we have cheaper AGM’s? e.g have the meetings at a venue like Kasarani Stadium and serve African foods, not expensive hotel foods that give high blood pressure!
Goodies: T-shirt, Calendar (see above), Safari Park Lunch box [with meat (big chicken slice, cake, beef & cheese sandwich) fruit (banana, apple), drinks (yoghurt, alvaro, water, orange juice)]
Lunch on the controversial calendar
this was one entertaining AGM!
“- Is Alvaro alcoholic? no it is not” – This whole year I have heard so much about the drink, I cant wait to try it out.
Co-Op bank, my firends is a deal. get even the minimum no of shares just so as not to be left out. Prospectus posted on their site. This is going to be more profitable than Eqity in a year with a new IT system and 50 addional branch presence then the SACCO connectivity focus…Dont miss the bus
http://www.co-opbank.co.ke/public_site/webroot/cache/article/file/Prospectus.pdf
KK is also a BoD member of EABL as well as Centum? Talk about conflict of interests.
I do agree with his thoughts on the NSE though.
Alvaro – overhyped but silly ‘controversy’… BUT you can’t buy this kind of publicity. Or can you?
The Alvaro question is hilarious. And they are a shareholder??! It is a bit of shame if they still have to ask …
I am not a fan of Alvaro .. enough said!
Good commentary on EABL…interesting.
Neverthless, I am have a question…it seems like most banks in Kenya don’t offer loans to buy plots. I tried Stanbic..does anyone have info on any financial institution here that lends to buy plots or is there a way to go about this? Any insights will be helpful.
Afromusing: you’ll like, and may never buy another sprite in Nairo
MainaT: KK not a member of the high powered EABL board (kiereieni, kiboro, 3 diageo/sister, MD/FC, wanjiuku mugande, evans mwaniki] he was invited there to give a talk.
coldtusker: I thought Coke may have fueled that debate
Wambui: shareholder asked about Alvaro and new Keroche beer and the Chairman replied that Alvaro debate was over, and that EABL would triumph over Keroche
first …. kcb through s&l and also housing finance both finance the buying of plots…as does the national housing corporation. they just make the qualification quite stiff… doubt whether anyone, except for a few developers even qualify.
two dont touch the c-oop ipo until u dont need the cash for at leeast two years,. it stinks.but no one, not even the insiders can monkey around with share prices over a medium to long term. plus put down objectives and stick to them ie in at nine fifty out at… and please sell at that point.
on alvaro… all soft drinks have slightly addicitve additives which are perfectly legal, coca cola included… that swhy one coke is never enough… they are meant to create high… if an effect is new, like the malt non brewed in kenya u can feel drunk… i know, that explanation didnt make much sense to me either.
Good write up on AGM. It reminded me of the umbrella that i carry given during the Kenya Re AGM.
EABL is a company with good fundamentals and that is not going to change soon. Alvaro is a good drink only that the bars started selling it for Ksh. 100 (why pay more?)
EABL expanding its regional expansion by trying to increase it market share in the great lake region…opened a depot in Kigali…will apply same strategy to venture into the emerging market of southern sudan
so far in the Tanzanian market spirit were more profitable than beer.
In a bid to increase and defend its market share in Kenya its planning to spend 50 million kshs in this current fin year.
competition is coming from
1) International brands eg Heineken
2) may be keroche i.e new summit.