Enjoying the fruits of some good 2010 performance in an uncertain 2011

Comparing share performance to three months and a year ago.

The Stable
Barclays Bank
Bralirwa Breweries (Rwanda) ↑
Diamond Trust Bank ↑
East African Breweries (EABL) ↑
Kenya Airways ↓
Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) ↑
Kenya Oil Company (Kenol) ↓
Scangroup ↔
Stanbic (Uganda) ↑
Uchumi Supermarkets ↔

Review:
– Best performer: Bralirwa 11% (this Q), then East African Breweries 10%
– Worst performer: Kenol (-4%)
– In: Barclays
– Out: Safaricom
– Increase: Kenya Airways
– Decrease: None
– Performance: The Portfolio is down 1% in the last three months while the NSE 20 Share Index is down 7%
– Uchumi, which is out of receivership, has finally got the green light from the CMA to re-list at the Nairobi Stock Exchange, though the date and conditions of re-listing have not been specified.
– Safaricom’s 2010 results which will be released on May 18, are widely expected to show a drop in revenue and profit owing to the price wars in the mobile sector.
– Kenol resumed its battle the Ministry of Energy after a quiet period as motorists grappled with an unexpected shortage of petrol (This inspired an innovative site called Find Fuel . The Kenol AGM was live streamed and can be found on YouTube.

– Stanbic Uganda had reduced profits owing to bad loans combined with staff & IT expense increases.

Events & Outlook:
Looking forward to
– Dividend payments from Diamond Trust, KCB, Scangroup, Stanbic (Uganda), Kenol
– Bonus shares from Diamond Trust (1:5), Scangroup (1:5), and Stanbic Uganda (1:1)
– New share listings: There’s been no word yet from Transcentury and Britak. During the quarter, CFC-Stanbic spun off their insurance arm – CFC Insurance which is now listed on the stock exchange, and will soon to be joined at the NSE by CIC Insurance.

– Why list?: The newspapers, this week had advertisements from the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) highlighting tax and other benefits of listing shares or raising capital in Kenya. These include;

Newly listed companies will enjoy reduced corporates taxes if;
(i) They list 20% of their shares, they will pay 27% income tax for the next three (3) years on profits (while other corporates pay 30%).
(ii) List 30% and pay 25% tax for next 5 years on profits.
(iii) List 40% and pay 20% tax for next 5 years on profits.

Tax exemptions;
– A tax amnesty on omitted past income
– Dividend taxes paid to venture capital firms
– Income to employee share option programs (ESOP’s)
– Interest income on long term infrastructure bonds

Also all East African nationals are treated as ‘locals’, not foreign investors in allocation of IPO shares and get (lower) withholding tax on their dividends. These and other tax deductible expenses including payments for credit-rating, listing & issuance costs, and some exemptions from stamp duty, can be found at the CMA site.