Moi Day weekend

Corporate Week

Athi River Mining Bond
Athi River Mining launched an 800 million shilling ($11 million) long-term bond with a final maturity in 2010, and priced at 1.75% above the 91 day T-Bill. The proceeds of the issue will be applied as follows: 600 million towards completion of clinker plant in Kaloleni (Mombasa – expected completion in April 2006) and 200 million towards repayment of short-term bank debts. The bond can be bought between October 18th and 24th with settlement on the 27th and it will be listed on the NSE from November 7th. ARM expect the new plant investment will double profits in 5 years and increase the company’s turnover to kshs 3 billion and make it the lowest cost cement producer in the region. However the biggest risk facing the industry is power supply, energy price -which account for 40% of cement production costs .

CFC Rights Issue
On the same day the Uchumi rights issue came to an end, CFC Bank announced one of their own. The Bank will increase their share capital to match their expanded asset base (over 18 billion shillings) and to comply with CBK requirements. CFC have called for an extraordinary general meeting on October 31 where shareholders will be asked to approve (i) authorised share capital to be increased from 720 million to 1 billion shillings by creating 56 million new shares of 5/= to rank pari passu with existing 144m shares (ii) a rights issue where 12 million of the new shares will be offered to existing shareholders in a ratio of 1 new for each 12 held.

KPLC year end
Kenya power & lighting company announced their results for the year ended in June 2005. Revenue increased from 23.9 to 29 billion shillings (inclusive of "fuel cost recoveries" amounting to 6.6b). Total operating costs also increased from 23 to 27b. Profit after tax increased from 458m to 1.27b shillings and the company announced a first and final divided of 1.5 shillings per share to be paid in December.

Insurance reform
Insurance companies will be asked to compile better financial reports and accounts using a standard template. For 2004, insurance companies published accounts using a variety of formats with some omitting director names, net assets and profit/loss information.

Separately, the industry regulator body, the office commissioner of insurance, could soon be an independent agency - it is currently a department of the Ministry of Finance. Critics say this has limited its authority to enforce specific industry requirements, resulting in the collapse of a number of insurance companies.

Cultural

Gala night
The Marketing Society of Kenya 2005 Gala Night will be held on Friday October 14th at the Karen Blixen museum. Costs are 2,500 for students, 3k for individual and 30k for corporate tables.

Museum Closing
The Nairobi Museum will close for 20 months for a facelift and expansion project dubbed "museum in change" – from October 15th to July 2007. However the snake park and regional museums will remain open.

Kenyan lives

Constitution
A writer in India looks at the referendum debate and how it will affect Kenyan-Indians.

Athletics
Kenyans in Alaska? Yes, they are athletes at the University of Alaska-Anchorage.

Sport weekend

Saturday 08 October
07:00 SS2 Formula One: Japanese Qualifying LIVE
07:00 SS1 Super Series: Australia vs. Rest of the World Xi 3rd ODI, LIVE
17:45 SS2 WC Qualifier:: Rwanda vs. Angola, LIVE
17:45 SS3 WC Qualifier:: Cameroon vs. Egypt, LIVE
17:45 SS6 WC Qualifier:: England vs. Austria, LIVE
20:45 SS6 WC Qualifier:: Denmark vs. Greece, LIVE
22:30 SS3 WC Qualifier:: Tunisia vs. Morocco, LIVE

Sunday 09 October
04:00 SS6 Diego Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo, LIVE repeat @ 18:00 - 19:00 SS1
07:30 SS2 Formula One: Japanese Main Race, LIVE repeat @ 18:00 - 20:00 SS2
22:30 SS3 WC Qualifier:: Bolivia vs. Brazil, LIVE

Not much sports, but at least I have a wedding to attend on Saturday.