Hostile takeover?

The number of companies listed at the Nairobi Stock Exchange could reduce by one following a notification on December 1, by BOC Gases of its intention to acquire effective control (80%) of Carbacid Investments. BOC already controls 42% of the Carbacid through proxies, and will use a novel technique to finance the deal. BOC has reported six-month turnover of 454 million while Carbacid had 134 million for the half-year. On Friday there was no activity in both BOC and Carbacid shares which remained at 160 and 137 respectively.

EDIT: In November 2020, in a reversal of sort, Carbacid acting in conjunction with Aksaya Investments, has made an offer to buy out 100% of BOC Gases. Aksaya is an investment company of Baloobhai Chhotabhai Patel and Amarjeet Patel that owns 40% of Carbacid.

BOC Holdings which owns 65% of BOC Kenya has accepted the offer with a stop date of July 2021 and one condition is that there is no reduction greater than 15% in the value of  BOC. Yesterday, Carbacid traded at Kshs 9 per share while BOC closed at Kshs 66 per share.

Also:

  • BOC owns 5% of Carbacid and had 3,000 shareholders.
  • Carbacid will pay Kshs 1.24 billion (±$11.3 million) in cash for BOC  
  • BOC Holdings which owns 63% of BOC Kenya has accepted the deal

Jobs, sports & addiction

Bank Jobs

Chase bank
– Chief internal audit & compliance officer. Applicants should be graduates with professional qualifications and 3 years similar experience.
– Manager, risk analysis: applicants to be graduates with professional qualification and 3 years similar experience
Applicants for both positions should be aged 35 and below, have good IT skills and knowledge of their sectors. Apply to manager human resources & administration, chase bank, P. O. Box 28987-00200 Nairobi by 17 December 2, 2005.

Equity bank
Security officer. Applicants should be aged 30 -4 40 with at least 5 years armed forces or police experience and with knowledge of banking fraud. Apply to the human resource manager at securityofficer@ebsafrica.co.ke by December 9.

anon bank
Liabilities manager who will mobilize deposits. Applicants should have business degree and at least five years marketing experience. Apply to DN.A/570 box 49010-00100 Nairobi by 20 December.

Consulting Jobs

KPMG International
– Regional finance manager (Ref RFM-05). Applicants should be qualified accountants with 5 years senior management experience and skilled in budgeting and modeling.
– Senior Accounts Assistant (SAA-05). Applicants should be qualified accountants and graduate with three years experience
– Accounts Assistant (AA-05). Business degree and 3 years relevant experience required.
Apply to esd@kpmg.co.ke by December 16

PricewaterHouseCoopers
Invites applicants to join its transactions team as;
– Executives: applicants should be graduates with at least 3 years corporate finance or transaction experience as well as marketing and deal making
– Managers. Must have min of 5 years corporate finance or transaction experience including infrastructure in both public an private sectors
Apply to the human capital coordinator at recruitment.ke@ke.pwc.com

Other

Transparency International
– Deputy executive director at Kenya chapter. Applicants must be Kenyans of high degree of integrity who are technical experts capable of program development and management. Apply to recruit@adeptsystems.co.ke by 16 December

Brookside Dairy
– Cost accountant
– Assistant accountants
– Account assistants (Ruiru & Mombasa)
Apply to the human resource manager at hrm@brookside.co.ke by December 16

hr firms
Some human resource firms who recently advertised some jobs are;
– www.hawkins.co.ke
– www.jobsnow.co.ke

for most of these check the daily nation, Friday December 2

not a drug yet
internet addiction is as high as 6 – 10% among users.

Sport highlights
Saturday 03 December
3:30 PM Liverpool vs. Wigan Athletic
6 PM Bolton vs. Arsenal & Chelsea vs. Boro & Newcastle vs. Aston Villa
8 PM Man Utd vs. Portsmouth
10 PM Real Madrid vs. Getafe

Sunday 04 December
5 AM No Respect Boxing; Bernard Hopkins vs. Jermaine Taylor
7 PM Charlton vs. Man City
9 PM Villarreal vs. Barcelona

Safari rally returns in a way

Today marks the start of the East African Classic Safari Rally at Mombasa, which will then run through Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Nairobi, the Mara, Eldoret, Nanyuki, Voi and then back to Mombasa for the finish.

It features many pre-Schumacher-era drivers that older Kenyans will remember such as Duncan, Kankkunen, Blomqvist, and Waldegaard who will be driving even older cars such as the Datsun 240Z, Mercedes 450 Ford Escort, Porsche 911 and Lancia Stratos pictured– all from the 70’s era.

Without a genuine international WRC rally, the event is mostly a nostalgic and unique tourist attraction for the country, but still a gruelling event for the drivers who will cover several thousand kilometres over 10 dusty days.

Still, I’d like to see future Classic rallies that involve group B or monster cars of the 80’s such as the Ford RS200, Lancia 037 & Delta S4, Peugeot 205 T16 and Audi Quattro Sport pictured – which unleashed an era of noisy and large rally supercars that had 500+ horsepower, four-wheel-drive, and many other high-tech pieces.


Serena Hotels Takeover

Plans for the long-awaited restructuring at Serena have been finalized. It will involve the takeover of Serena Kenya (TPS Limited) by Serena East Africa (TPS Eastern Africa) who will purchase the 23% owned by the public (9 million shares of 5 shillings par value) by offering them 1.35 new shares (par value 1/=) of the new TPS EA for each old TPS share held. (TPS who own 77% will not be participating)

calendar
1 December: record date of entitlements.
14 December: documents posted to shareholders including offer details, information memorandum, and invitations to attend presentations by managers and transaction advisers.
16 December: opening of offer.
15 February 2006: closing of offer. Also if exercise is unsuccessful, [i.e. at least 1,000 shareholders don’t buy in or TPS does not attain 80% stake in company] then old TPS shares resume trading at the NSE.
1 march: results announced.
15 March: new TPS EA listed on NSE.
29 march: old TPS delisted from NSE.

This Nairobi life

Cooling on pesa point: Several banks recently signed on to be a part of the Pesa Point ATM network, and now they are passing on the charges to the customer after a brief free trial period. If I use a pesa point ATM it will cost me 30 shillings per transaction, which negates the attractiveness of the flat fee banking concept which I signed on for. Henceforth, I will only use pesa point ATM’s for emergency withdrawals.

Development freeze: The Nairobi City Council has suspended proposals for property conversions / development activities (e.g. to apartments & offices) in Kilimani, Kileleshwa, Thompson, Lavington, Riverside and Westlands for a period of six months while it reviews the development policies which have transformed (and some say destroyed) these Neighbourhoods.

No escape: Plans for a Christmas holiday at the Coast may be put on hold because all major hotels have been fully booked, leaving no space for domestic tourists.

No water: The city could face a serious water shortage after talks stalled between a water company and its workers.

But there are opportunities:

Job: In the position of the finance officer at the national anti corruption campaign steering committee of the ministry of justice and constitutional affairs. Applicants must have b.com degree, CPA (K), 5 years experience, and good knowledge of the Government of Kenya and development partners’ finance and accounting systems. Apply to the director, P. O. Box 72546-00200, Nairobi by December 16.

Consulting:  Opportunities at the Tourism Trust Fund (link fixed) in the fields of business planning, marketing planning, legal, environmental impact, quantity surveying, project monitoring & evaluation, architectural services, civil & structural engineering, landscape design & architecture, financial planning and conservation. Contracts are for one year with the possibility of renewal and application dossiers can be obtained by emailing info@ttkenya.org with “panel dossier – standard” in the subject line, with your name and address in the message only. Closing date for applications is December 14.