KCB and Triton

KCB has been rather silent on the Triton matter even as the company’s share price took a mini hit and its profitability outlook was downgraded in some circles.

The last release from their website was in reference to the launch of a Sustainability Report of the group. It’s not online yet, though it will be, an interesting report with lots of rarely disclosed facts on the bank, mostly their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, and will be repeated every two years.

in the report
KCB Brand – has a 75% corporate reputation, is the most popular financial brand, and the 4th most popular in Kenya (after Safaricom, Kenya airways and Coca-Cola) according to the Steadman Group.

Silence on Triton can be explained by KCB’s customer privacy guidelines – the bank assures customers of privacy through stringent procedures and guidelines and undertake responsibility for any breach of confidentiality that may arise

Impact of Triton policy on responsible lending requires that the KCB audit committee meets twice a month, credit committee also twice a month to discuss the risk profile of bank, and the risk management committee meet quarterly or when required

Corruption & Triton: KCB has zero tolerance to corruption, and has 110 ethics champions trained to combat corruption. Also in 2007, KCB exited from Transparency International (TI) bribery index, it prohibits political contributions (direct or indirect) from bank funds, and is a founder member of Ethical Business Group Kenya. The Report states that 2 staff were dismissed and 9 terminated.

Labour matters

  • Employees got an average of 39 hours of training a year.
  • Base salary is equal regardless of gender: for subordinates (male is Kshs. 36,057, female is Kshs. 33,984) clerical (m 58,434 f 63,600), section heads (m 85,770, f 87,684) managers (m 192,090, f 161,138)
  • Staff include managers (630 males to 287 females), most of whom are aged 30 – 50 years (492 m, 212 f)

Environmental

  • All loan projects are required to obtain environmental (NEMA) certification.
  • KCB will strive to reduce water consumption (estimated at 191,000 cubic meters p.a) reduce energy consumption (5.782 million kwh, consume 312,000 litres of diesel which emitted 248,000 and 838 tons of carbon dioxide respectively).
  • KCB will strive to recycle paper, scan documents – encourage customers to uptake e-services (use less paper), participate in tree planting and reforestation,

Empowerment of Kenyans

  • Loan base rate of 12%.
  • KCB has 71,000 e-customers (receive information by electronic means – which means less paper consumed)
  • Create wealth nationwide – branches can procure 33% of products in local areas, and KCB has 9 full branches in sparely populated areas.
  • Provide agricultural loans (mavuno for tea farmers and brookside for dairy operators)
  •  In the education sector, they partner with AIESEC and the Palmhouse foundation

Triton ends well? for KCB: The Triton matter may be a foregone conclusion if the Daily Nation article about an out of court settlement between the Government of Kenya and its financiers (KCB, Fortis, Ecobank, Equatorial banks) is true – and that the government (i.e. taxpayers) may pay the financiers off to not go to court over their funds lost with Trition and the Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC). The silence will mean that unsavory happenings at KPC will (maybe) not be exposed further, clearing the way (hopefully) for an IPO of the troubled company.

Missing the Centum party

(EDIT: Centum’s official Press release about the AGM)

When I last looked at Centum, the company was in the news due to CEO exit and a postponed AGM and postponed dividend.

Now it appears the AGM took place yesterday: I did not attend as I (i) had sold my shares (ii) did not see the invitation document before today (iii) forgot all about Centum AGM

From today’s reading, Centum sent out an annual report with updated sections but still the financial accounts for nine months to March 2008: it now includes mentions of departures of Isaac Awuondo (September 08), and CEO Peter Mwangi (October 2008) which coincided with the postponed AGM, and also welcomes on board new directors – Kibuga Karithi (September 08), Imtiaz khan (November 2008 – Cassias Capital Partners) and new CEO James Mworia (appointed October 2008, joined board December 2008) who came on board a week after Mwangi left – for greener pastures where he’s now the CEO of the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE)

No agenda: The invitation letter dated 1st December 2008 mentions that a shareholder presentation would take place on Thursday at 10, followed by the AGM at 11 – but no meeting agenda was contained.

The report also states that the (Centum) board believes that the annual general meeting provides an appropriate forum for investors to communicate with the board and encourages participation

Dividend day A company statement from October had mentioned that dividend would be paid at the January 14 AGM

So what happened?

Anonymous Comments posted yesterday include

Anonymous said… You gave the Centum AGM a skip???!! Here I was looking forward to a post on that.
Part of the drama was that the company’s attorney denied a proxy audience on the grounds that co. law does not expressly provide for proxies to be heard at an AGM. I wonder how corporate s/holders are supposed to voice their concerns at AGMs in that case?
Interestingly, a special agenda to have two directors (the Chairman and Chris Kirubi) removed was in the cards; no need to wait for the result of that coz it’s sure to flop since their stake in the co is significant.

Anonymous (New CEO) MainaT – I think he’s off to a good start. He managed the anti- C.K s/holder sentiment as best as these things can be managed i.e. by requesting the co. attorney to give an (erroneous) interpretation of co law to diffuse the anti C.K sentiments that were beginning to spiral out of ctrl.

Anonymous said… Centum don’t have an in-house co. attorney. They must have hired whoever was turning proxies at the door. Their co. sec. is not an attorney. Curiously, did they send the annual reports without the proxy forms? Extremely strange. Very strange. CMA should take a peek at this. Someone should write a stinker, otherwise, minority views will continue to be suppressed.

any more comments? and was the dividend paid or just declared?

Toxic Centum Last time Centum was in the news their CEO had departed, and Discount stockbrokers had collapsed. This time the news cycle is topped by the Triton fuel scam and the departures of the Chairman of the Capital markets Authority Chege Waruingi and Kenya Airports Authority CEO George Muhoho – (more from “airport expert” – Coldtusker )

Plane moment: Mostly KQ

New KQ plane

After a slight delay here’s the new KQ 737-800 5Y-KYE

Kenya Airways gets another 737-800 from Boeing tomorrow. Bold expansion at a difficult time for many airlines, and KQ is still increasing routes and frequencies but can reduced fuel prices be passed on to passengers?

Regional Routes

Air Tanzania was suspended from flights and offered a $2 million bailout by the government only?

Zambian Airways suspended flight without notice citing high fuel costs.

Virgin Nigeria suspended flights to London and South Africa.

Delta is US is expanding routes in Africa later this year (e.g. Nairobi in June) and so South African Airways will start a nonstop service from New York to Johannesburg in May that leaves earlier and allows for seamless connections on to other African destinations

Flight of Woe

On a recent local flight, the aircraft was found to have puncture at a mid-way stop

So the airline attempted to move the passengers to a more refined vehicle


Regulator reassures depositors

Titanic Triton
The Central Bank of Kenya has issued a statement to reassure depositors at some banks that have had some panicked customers want to withdraw and safeguard their funds at their banks which they believe may be exposed to the Triton fraud and fall – which CBK says is less than 0.002% of the banking sector. Read more

Best bank for netpreneurs?

This is based on a skunkworks discussion thread and as many answers are welcomed. A growing number of young Kenyans are now making money online from blogs and websites; They often earn money in and receive foreign cheques for $50, $100 or $200 (e.g. from Google Adsense) but have different experiences when they try and encash them. I use Co-op Bank, but the cost of Kshs. 1,000 (losing ~13%) to get funds one month later is something I’m sure another bank can improve on

My questions to the netpreneurs earning from advertising and other online sources is what did you do with your last adsense cheques? Where do you bank them? What kind of bank account do you have? How much does it cost to clear such a cheque and how long before funds are available? and finaly What do you as a young digital entrepreneur /internet like about your bank?

Results (after a week)
Concept says Family Bank – Kshs. 650
I say Co-op Bank – – Kshs 1,000
and KCB Customer Service the only of three dozen banks to reply to e-mail says minimum Ksh.800 maximum Ksh.4800 plus postage charge of Ksh.300. (so Kshs 1,100)