Kenya Re IPO

Better late than never, along comes the Kenya Re IPO shuffled to the top of the privatization deck . The ace card is still Safaricom, while Kenya Pipeline should be a joker in waiting.

It’s nice to venture back into the IPO game (after passing on the last two - Access Kenya, Eveready) and I should have my Kshs 19,000 ($288) ready to go after getting the prospectus(Minimum is 2,000 shares for individuals at 9.50 per share).

The IPO delay has not been explained, but the former managing director and financial controller of Kenya Re did not help matters by getting indicted for corruption related offenses just as the process was underway nor did a late attempt to absorb the run- down Kenya National Assurance (KNAC 2001) into Kenya Re.

Despite the 2,000 share minimum for individuals you can expect it to be over-subscribed going by the numbers who applied for Eveready and the amounts individuals applied for with Kengen. While recent IPO's (Access Kenya, Eveready) have not performed as well as earlier ones (Kengen, Scangroup, that could all change now .

Foreign and institutional investors got burnt in Kengen (the first IPO in years) after they applied for millions of dollars worth of shares only to end up with $1,000 each. Subsequent IPO's have defined specific allocation criteria – for individuals, employees, corporate investors, others and now even insurance companies. Corporates/institutions have also been given another incentive in that they unfairly won't have to pay until they know how many Kenya Re shares have been allocated to them.

The market is still down , as I and am sure many others have traded less this year. Most activity had revolved around new share issues and recently split shares and the reduced trading has meant less income for the brokers.
Some say it is because of the falling prices or shares are still too expensive/overvalued, others says it is because of stockbroker misdeeds.

Dividend by EFT
In another move to curtail rising shareholder costs Scangroup has twice tried to entice investors to get their IPO refunds and now dividends by signing up direct bank transfers (EFT's) to get money straight into their accounts. EFT's offer faster payments, by pass risky cheques (can get lost in post office and investors have take about two weeks to get funds), but while EFT’s are free are most bank’s it’s also a sly way of passing on the cost of dealing with shareholders to shareholders themselves.

The most expensive round of beer you'll ever buy

Archer has regaled us with some great bar tales of late. So here’s a nairumor to caution/silence all those big talkers and big spenders who take one tusker and suddenly become as generous as a politician tuning a stewardess by buying rounds of drinks and sharing their million shilling investment plans and income secrets.

It is said that someone with ulterior motives will cozy up to you to listen, and maybe get a free drink for listening. Usually such a person would be a sly thief eyeing one of the three fat nokia's you've laid out on the table. Now there's another fox that’ll befriend you and ask for your business card. That person could be tax agent who'll Google (check up on) your records at the Kenya revenue Authority the next day to see how your big bar talk measures against the small income tax returns you filed at the KRA.

Convenient banking

making trades offs as convenient banking is not the same thing as cheap banking

Equity has been the fastest growing bank in the country over the last few years. It has won customers, now 1+ million, and has sent bigger banks banks back to the drawing board to woo & retain their customers.

However, while banking with them may not be cheap for a business, it is convenient, and offers finance and flexibility to an upcoming business. People coming from abroad complain about the cost of making mobile calls here – saying they are expensive. But compared to what? A taxi driver will make a 30 shilling mobile phone call to secure a 2,000 shilling job as his phone is his office.

Same with Equity their low entry minimums suit individuals and start ups. And while some of their charges are rather hefty (3% for ENC and 10% of amount for a temporary overdrafts), as a businesswoman told me today, their quick decision making and the fact that they are the only bank that can offer these facilities to her make them the optimal bank for now. Getting cheques cleared, guarantees, and payments to suppliers matter more to her now, than the cost of these services, and help her build a credit record for the future. Once she is more established,. she will look question the transaction costs and have other banks now wooing her business.

Other banking briefs

According to Africa confidential, Kenya is favored to be the new host country for the African development bank, with Botswana second in the ranking. However Ivory Coast is back in the running following the signing of a peace accord. More on homeless banks.

The CBR Bank rate was lowered from 10 to 8.5%

The Government has commissioned a study to look into the low uptake of youth enterprise fund and agriculture development funds. They are blaming banks for asking borrowers for collateral and 3 month bank statements – terms which were not spelt out in the funds. from an offline story from the East Africa:

CFC Stanbic bank pre –merger comparisons

Diamond Trust acquired a majority shareholding in Diamond Trust in the just concluded rights issue.

Equity Bank
- Looking to enter the money transfer business
- To buy Housing Finance bank - what do the bloggers say?

Family bank got admitted to the CBK bank clearing house earlier in June, just a few weeks after being licensed. Family took advantage and pressed for an exemption (on a two year waiting period), similar to that granted to Equity Bank when it also became a bank. from an offline story from the standard

National Bank is seeking to commit Ketan Somaia to civil jail over a 17 million debt

Pyramids schemes continue to
thrive despite numerous warnings. However, some schemes feeling a cash pinch are passing the blame to the central bank who are limiting the interest they can pay depositors to 10% p.a. - before they were paying over 10% per month.

Kutwa Tuesday - June 26

Uchumi revealed: Shedding some lights on the Uchumi bond proposal, the receiver manager has stated that the problems that shut down Uchumi had more to do with management style than the market conditions. The newspaper says that the 650 million to be raised, 280 million will go to pay to pay suppliers & creditors, 23 million interest on (bank) loans, 52m to pay terminal benefits of staff, 200m working capital as the company plans to open 3 new branches in Mombasa, Nairobi, and Kisumu.

The article adds that all suppliers have been paid for deliveries made in the last 12 months i.e. the company is profitable. The company had sales of Kshs. 1.3 billion in the first quarter of the year and had 2.8 million shoppers visit their stores. Sarit is their best store with April revenue of 90 million followed by Ngong Rd hyper with 68m (last was Eldoret with 8m) from an offline story in the financial standard.
Note - even if they re-list, won't they be in the same boat as NBK and be unable to pay dividends for several years?

Rights Issue: Olympia’s rights issue was formally announced today with an offer for shareholders to buy 3 shares for each held.

Newspapers: New newspaper from the KISS team - called the Nairobi Star and billing itself as Kenya’s first full color daily newspaper launches next week
- But what happened to the Kenya Times website frozen on June 8?

Trade not aid
According to , an Oxfam report subsidies are responsible for poverty among African cotton farmers.

Political worm
Raila Odinga gets unfairly blamed for a lot of things, but he is not responsible for a malicious computer virus bearing his name that has caused IT admin’s some headaches this month

uh oh: Why is Obama’s campaign getting stuck?

uh oh 2: Sad to read that former track darling Marion Jones is
almost broke. Even though she wasn’t a big spender like Tyson or Jackson, legal bills fending off drug allegations have taken their toll on her finances.

Uh oh 3 & 4 : Zimbabwe to do a takeover of foreign businesses as Uganda parliamentarians have given Barclays, Sheraton, Kakira Sugar, and Uganda Telecom one year to float part of their share on the Uganda stock exchange.

War what is it good for?
Is there a difference between Somalia, Darfur and Palestine?

CFC Stanbic Bank

CFC Stanbic Bank is the official name of the proposed new entity created by the merger of the CFC and Stanbic banks' pending approval from among others shareholders, Capital Markets Authority, Central Bank of Kenya (Minister of Finance).

The merger makes sense in that the 9th and 10th largest banks (both around $350m in assets) can merge to become the 4th largest bank in the country (after Barclays, KCB, Stanchart)

Sticking points are that the deal is structured to include the creation of new shares (113 million) that will be transferred to Stanbic in addition to buying a majority of Gambit shares (currently the largest shareholder in CFC). Gambit will still remain as the 4th largest shareholder in the bank after the merger.

To sweeten the deal, CFC Stanbic Bank will remain listed on the NSE and Stanbic Kenya will be a wholly owned subsidiary. Also the statement points out their branch networks complement each other, so perhaps only Mombasa (where they, and most banks, have branches on Nkurmah street) and branches in Uchumi stores may need a work out.

When the story first broke last year (despite having a caution), it sent CFC's share price up 10X (to about 900 shillings) and this notice also advises shareholders to exercise caution in dealing their CFC shares until further announcements are made. The announcement was released on Friday (but not yet up on NSE site), and published in the newspapers on Saturday to perhaps dampen the speculative mood/euphoria and allow careful analysis to set in before Monday.

(I Don’t have CFC shares but they have been very good stockbrokers to me. Unrelated to this is, I have Stanbic Uganda shares)

National Bank AGM

National Bank of Kenya’s 38th annual general meeting was held on Friday June 22 2007 at KICC. The bank has been profitable for the last few years but has not been able to pay dividends to long suffering shareholders owing to an accumulated deficit from past losses.

some highlights

The debt and (no) dividend has dominated any discussion about NBK and following the government settlement of their debt via Kshs 20.3 billion in bonds, spread out over 15 years, there was some optimism that the shareholders would finally get their due. Their auditors (Deloitte) have raised this matter of emphasis for several years as NBK has continued to claim interest on these government initiated loans with the understanding that it was sovereign debt to be settled one day (which has now happened).

However in a long statement by the chairman (Mr. Muhindi), he mentioned that they were still not in a position to pay dividends and shareholders should not dwell on the matter. He mentioned that NBK's share price had appreciated by over 30 shillings in the past year, and to any share trader, that was more than any Kenyan company paid in dividends last year.

Unfortunately the dividend issue came up and even the first three shareholders all asked about it among the many questions they posed. The Chairman mentioned that the banking act, companies act, and NBK articles all forbade payment as long as there was a deficit in the revenue account – and that the government bond would not wipe out the deficit, only profits can do that which may not take another four years

bad debts NBK collected 503 million shillings in bad debts which was up from 403m the year before. He said they have still not scratched the surface as many of their cases were still in court.

privatization of NBK was mentioned in the budget last week; however the board does not know more than what was in the media. I.e. that GoK and NSSF would sell their shares either to the public or a strategic partner. On merger possibilities the board would consider the right merger opportunity if it came up (but not for share capital reasons)

other shareholder Q’s

corporate social responsibility NBK assisted in the famine relief program last year, set up a ward at Kenyatta hospital, assisted schools for orphans in Mombasa and is building a kitchen for Mbagathi hospital.

directors why should directors get allowance when we have no divided and some directors don’t even attend meetings?

who got paid? a small amount of dividend (174,000 shillings) was paid in 2006 and shareholders wanted to know to who! Management stated that the correct term should be dividend collected - as some shareholders still have not claimed their dividends (last paid in 1997 and amount totaling 271 million)

what is statutory reserve it is a new rule for all banks in Kenya that even for performing portfolio, 3% must be set aside to provide for any eventual bad debts.

path to dividends: Responding to the umpteenth question on dividends, the MD (Mr. Marambii) stated that there were two ways to get NBK shareholders back on the path to dividends (i) one was to accumulate profits to pay off the deficit – which could take several years or (ii) was rot approve a reduction in the banks capital which would wipe out the deficit. Going forward any profits thereafter could be applied to dividends. He said that shareholders had rejected such a move a few years before but the board was leaning towards bring the option back to the table

goodies NBK tote bag only and lunch. Some shareholders not happy said that the company could have also given a t-shirt while another suggested that they could have saved the money spent on the bags, cold lunch, and printing the annual reports (mgmt: says they cost 60/= each) and paid dividend instead. I did not stick around for lunch which looked like it was going to be a chaotic buffet

Expensive water

Bottled water companies have been lamenting about the excise duty they have had to pay for years – and it got even worse after the budget was read last week, increasing excise duty from 2.05 to 6 shillings excise tax per litre. This is likely to increase the price of water by 3 shillings per bottle. But at least they dodged a bullet with the postponed increased in the price of plastic (Those small plastic bottles you use and throw away cost about 10 shillings each, including plastic labels)

Still it is an odd paradox of life that a litre of water [which anyone can make at home] could (until recently) cost more than litre of petrol [imported from thousands of miles away and undergoes several complex processes].

Mostly Safaricom II

Safaricom, the largest, (acknowledged) most profitable company in Kenya has returned a profit of Kshs 17 billion ($250 million) for the year ended in March 2007 - 40% better than the year before. What are the seven deadly sins again? I just want a decenet election year IPO.

Mostly Safaricom

The ban on plastic paper announced in last Thursday’s budget has temporarily been reversed. It was an amorphous declaration covering all manner of plastics (consumer, industrial) that was likely to lead to unintended increase in the price of many items.

Safaricom
- Has lowered rates for phone calls and SMS from today. Mobile companies have become increasingly competitive with Celtel and Telkom Wireless - who have deployed VoIP and roaming features - nipping at the edges of Safaricom’s base. Are free weekends from Celtel the next offering?
- Safaricom has opted to recycle numbers now that they were running out of lines(prefix 0720-0729. Unused phone lines (not used/topped up) for 4 month can now be reclaimed by the company and be resold (previously they expired after 1 year)
- I’ve noticed on my recent travels in South Africa, Uganda and Tanzania – that all Vodfone affiliated networks have a cool feature that lets you know where you are (location). It was tested once in Kenya last year but the flip side to this is that it reminds paranoid people that the phone companies (and other interested authorities) know if you are at Ngurdoto mountain lodge, Johannesburg airport or the Speke hotel and that they can find you and perhaps not wanting to spook some subscribers have not activated the feature in Kenya. [Read how it affected a lion’s phone choice and more on big brother from Uganda and South Africa]
- 30% of Safaricom up for an IPO this fiscal year.

Sports TV: G TV are expected to have 80% of premiership games this year. Is that reason enough for DSTV to panic? (am not a subscriber). There’s also Oxygen (cable) TV (costs Kshs 999 per month), and free TV (Nation (with La Liga), Citizen (rename them ChelseaTV), KBC, KTN and other channels with various sports offerings. The big attraction of DSTV is sports, but also the other channels like Movies, MNET and Discovery. DSTV now assures that they will still have games of the big four (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool Man U – listed alphabeticaly, not by rank)- two every Saturday, two every Sunday, and one on Monday night. So what is 80% worth if it features teams like Blackburn, Man City, Sunderland and Wigan at a cost of about Kshs 2,200 per month?

Bank Roundup (June 07)

all banks share capital raised from 250 million to 1 billion. At the beginning of the year, 25 of 43 banks were below this mark (with 7 banks below 500 million). This is an update/reversal of an older proposal to lower the share capital when some banks were struggling a few years ago. Not many mergers expected though it may prompt some mid size banks to go for a public listing to raise cash (only 3 banks lost money last year)

Central bank has advertised for some currency destruction contracts as the east African reports on talks for the government to invest in the current currency supplier DE La Rue

Diamond Trust to venture into Islamic Banking

East African Development Bank profit went up by 229% to $4.6 million – up from $1.4 million the year before. Assets increased to $262m dollars and their non-performing portfolio reduced by 11%

Equity bank won an international award – the 2007 global vision in microfinance award. Also KTN reported that the that the bank will open three women only branches in Nairobi

Two month old Family Bank is seeking a new managing director

KCB to expand into Uganda as it also wins an international award – the Africa investor for best performing stock in Africa award (shares price up 97% ) > but the company also held one of the longest dreariest AGM’s in history on Friday

National bank finally got recapitalized. NBK could receive 346 million in 2007 and 2008, a bullet payment in 2009 of 4.3 billion, 220m in 2010 and 2011 and another bullet payment of 5.2 billion in 2012. For 2013 - 2015 123m each and in 2016 a lump sum of 5.2b. 2017 to 2020 58m each and a final payment of 6 billion – for a total of Kshs. 22.48 billion ($340 million)

NIC to increase authorized share capital via a rights issue. The board approved it on June 14, but there was no mention at the AGM on May 16. This follows a Fitch Report indicating that mid-size Kenyan banks need to increase their capital

opportunities

East African breweries is accepting applications for a graduate management program. Details online and D/L is 22/6

Family bank: chief executive officer, credit manager. Apply through deloitte - esd@deloitte.co.ke by 29/6

Kenital solar : sales & marketing manager, technical manager, engineer sales executives (5) regional managers (4). Apply to cm@kenital.com by 22/6

Country manager at Steadman Tanzania . Apply to janis@steadman-group.com by 22/6

A dozen IT, research and engineering jobs at Safaricom

Writers at a new Swahili newspaper. Apply to gazetijipya@gmail.com

Project management specialist at USAID.apply to hrnaiorobi@usaid.gov

Rhodes scholarships: 2 for Kenyans to pursue full time post graduate study at the University of Oxford. Apply to rhodeskec@wananchi.com by 15/9

Real estate: for the monied in the Diaspora, those who have worked hard and are looking to return in style, consider investing in Kihingo village a gated community development in Kitusuru where prices start at $500,000.

2007 Budget A to Z

6.5 to 7% economic growth expected in 2007/08 and the budget will focus on strengthening the financial sector, reducing the cost of doing business, enhanced productivity and fixing infrastructure.

Some measure mentioned in the budget speech today (only heard 1/2 of it) include:

alcoholduty up on spirits, wine and some beer
auto spares Reduce import duty 25 to 10% for oil filter, but with increased excise duty on imported used spares
Banks minimum share capital increased from 250 million to 1 billion (over the next 3 years) and benchmarks will be set up to be adhered to
battery to protect local battery companies, a duty imposed on imported recycled batteries
Cigarettes tax up
east African investors get the same treatment as Kenyans, - i.e. withholding tax of 5% on dividends and improved allocation chances (will be treated same as Kenyan in pool expanded form 25 to 40%)
energy rural electrification to be continued as mini grids will be set up in large towns. 8 billion has been allocated to deal with (anticipated?) energy shortages so they don’t hamper manufacturing processes and the government will also complete the oil pipeline to Uganda and refurbish the refinery at Mombasa (even though other shareholders have refused to chip in)
Educationincreased funding for free secondary education, implement increased teacher salary agreement and hire 7,000 new teachers
hawkers 400m to be spent to construct a market for them in Nairobi
ICT 1 billion ($15 million) for TEAMS which is expected to be completed in mid-2008. Also a national fibre optic network will be in place to reduce the cost of communications. In addition a 200m ($3m) endowment fund for innovation and research will be set up and the private sector invited to top it up.
insurance companies minimum share capital raised. For Long term (50m to 150m), general (100m to 300m) and composite from (150m to 450m) – within 3 years.
leasing: Zero rate leasing of some equipment and removal of withholding tax requirement
licenses for businesses - eliminate 205, reform 371 others
Medical equipment duty removed
milkZero rate milk powder to promote local processing and value addition
mineral water tax imposed
police 25,000 new officers to be hired
plastic bags tax imposed while thin plastic bags are banned to improve the environment.
Privatization 36.1b shillings ($0.5 billion) expected from privatization: Telkom Kenya (get a strategic partner this month), Safaricom IPO on the NSE, more shares sold of Kengen (when price corrects) and National bank [these shares could be offloaded to 3rd parties and not through the exchange]
Pyrethrumextracts are zero rated to promote local insecticide production
real estate duty exemption for developed of low cost housing (but not in slums). Also pension savings can now be used as security for home loans (not just as down payment)
retirees monthly pension benefits will be exempt from tax. Also social security will accept voluntary contributions from those whose employers don’t take part
sugar development levy removed from imported industrial sugar
textiles removed import duty
trade import duty reduced from 2.75% to 2.25% for all goods from all outside east Africa and none from within east Africa
transportation removed TLB from non passenger commercial vehicles,
Tourism 2 million visitors expected this year and as benefited the local air and hotel sectors. Will develop eco and lake tourism and will create resorts in Mombasa, Turkana and Isiolo.
universities (private) duty removed on goods and services supplied to them
VAT refunds to speed up refunds (which business community has complained about), will become automatic for those companies with a proven track record
women a 2 billion shilling ($30 million) women enterprise fund to be set up – starting with 1 billion this coming year, and call on corporates to assist the fund.
youth fund allocation increase by 250m to 1.25 billion with a goal of taking it to 2 billion

Uchumi shareholder bond

Uchumi Supermarkets (in receivership) has now formally asked shareholders to subscribe to a bond to raise Kshs 650 million ($9.85 million). These bondholders will rank alongside the government who lent Kshs. 675 million to Uchumi last year, but subordinate to (paid after) to bank ‘s debt

The bond offers 10% per annum, (which is more than any bank savings account in the country) and is allocated at a rate of 5 shillings for each share held (minimum subscription is 5,000 shillings, in 1,000 increments thereafter) D/L is 31/7

While the solicitation for the bond mentions the company’s’ very successful and impressive turnaround in receivership, there are no numbers to back this up.

I remain a faithful shopper (for groceries & other household items) at Uchumi, but as a shareholder, it is prudent to ask some questions before considering reinvesting:

- What is the performance of the company in receivership? Is it profitable on a monthly basis? Is it generating or consuming cash? Putting together a bond prospectus is expensive and a receiver manager is under no obligation to disclose financial performance to shareholders – but Uchumi was is a public company and disclosing such information to potential investors and the public should not coats more than 100,000 by way of a newspaper advertisement
- What is the level of bank debt and has it gone down? How much is still owed to the banks i.e. KCB and PTA? This is the 4th or 5th time the company is raising money in 3 years (after the 1.2 billion rights issue, 300 million suppliers assistance, 657 million from the government, 300 million attempted from shareholders
- If company is doing so well (media have reported 50% improvement over Uchumi’s best ever recent year), what was so wrong that the company collapsed? I have written before on how receiver managers can sometimes be better managers than the owners of a company and would like to see if this is a textbook example.

Kutwa Tuesday (June 12)

IPO Wanted


To plug a hole in the budget

Kenya Pipeline is in the news again – this time suing the Kenya Times group. The company has an enviable profitable track record for a Parastatal which makes it a ripe prime candidate for an IPO but mostly gets saddled with bad news for all the wrong reasons and controversial. A dose of public shareholding will lead to greater transparency & accountability and less political football at the company which is more profitable than Kengen (It earned 3.9 billion (pre tax) in June 2006, up from 2.4 billion in June 2005 (Kengen reported 3.8 and 1.8 billion pre tax in those years)

Kenya Re earnings
Point brought out by MainaT’s comment - what was Kenya Re’s true profit in 2005?

Post TED: Kenyan wildlife
The Economist analyses hippos and cheetahs

opportunities

Jobs
- Director of internal audit at East African development bank. Apply through KPMG at esd@kpmg.co.ug by 20/6
- Investment Climate Facility for Africa: Finance Director, Director, Strategic Knowledge, Projects Director, Director, and Legal/Regulatory Affairs. Apply through PWC at recruit@tz.pwc.com by 15/6
- Project manager at inmobia. Apply to job@inmobia.com by 12/6
- Research assistants at kemri-wellcome. Apply online
- Management trainees at Kenya wildlife services. D/L is 22/6
- Chief internal auditor at Kenya women’s finance trust. (D/L is 18/6)
- Nielsen: IT system manager, research executives. Apply to hr@acnielsen.co.ke by 16/6
- Safaricom: senior manager financial systems & analysis, site acquisition officer, senior learning & development officer, senior buyers (communication, technology - 3 positions). Apply to hr@safaricom.co.ke by 15/6
- Group head of ICT at UAP insurance (D/L is 21/6)
- urgent cargo: credit controller, sales executives, HR & admin officer. Jobs@urgentcargo.com by 22/6
- wilderness lodges (owners of keekorok) head of marketing, internal auditor. Apply to recruit@adeptsystems.co.ke by 22/6

Awards
- Africa women entrepreneurs (from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania Uganda) get voices heard and be recognized. Nominations to be submitted to the Cineartsafrika website by 29/6
- East African community students essay competition. D/L is 19/7

Partnerships
- Become a Citi hoppa franchisee. Cost at 50,000 per bus and get details at info@citihoppa.com
- Become a Keringet water distributor. Details at keringet@water.co.ke
- Get a mobile phone kiosk Sasanet. Details at sales@sasanet.co.ke

Vote The electoral commission of Kenya has reopened voter registration from June 11 to July 10 for Kenyans wishing to vote in the elections expected in December 2007.

Previous Kutwa Tuesday

TPSEA (Serena) 2007 AGM

TPSEA aka Serena Hotels held their first ever (public) AGM, as the company was listed after the last AGM was held.

The company with with 15 properties (11 owned, 4 managed) is enjoying the ongoing tourist boom. (Sarova should hurry up and take advantage with an IPO while the sector is doing well). 64% of income is earned in Kenya, with improved returns from Tanzania and other properties recorded. But, though Kenya recorded an increase in tourists visiting, a significant number were conference tourists – whose and gains are only felt by Nairobi (not coast or safari) hotels

In a keynote speech, the MD mentioned that they have maintained profitability despite the appreciating shilling, noting that a weakening or the SA rand had provided significant benefits to the south African tourism sector.

He also mentioned that the expansion into the region would cushion the company from company specific risk. Through managing properties (they don't own) in Rwanda and Uganda, they were able to increase awareness of the Serena brand at lower cost – and once those hotels are established and profitable then the group may bid for equity in them.

Future growth plans include Lake Nakuru, Laikipia, and southern Tanzania. The company has also invested in an energy efficiency program that will be completed this year.

The MD called on government to improve on infrastructure (roads) and security while he at the same time lamented that the environmental authorities (NEMA) had approved some lodge expansions that could harm environment and ecosystem.

Shareholders asked:
why company has high retained earnings & low dividend and, increased property investment costs: MD response was that tourism is a high risk business and it is important to keep reinvesting in hotels to maintain premier status and visitor preference. He noted that Kenya used to have four major hotel chains – and that block hotel and AT&H went out of business because they did not make such crucial investments to keep up. Serena must continually refurbish facilities, and must have ready cash since a lot of opportunities come up at short notice. Still, they were able to contain other costs (only 1% increase from the year before)
Serena a market leader? hotels in Nairobi do share information and this confirms Serena's leadership in terms of (revenue per available room), while coast and safari circuit hotel statistics are not easily available - but going by the packages that tour operators put together confirm that Serena properties are marketed as premier packages
corporate social responsibility can shareholders recommend CSR projects to the company? Management said yes as long as projects are in areas where the company has properties. Shareholders can also get discount rates if they book through the Serena offices.

goodies: bonus share, dividend, and a lunch box (with roast beef slice, bottled water, apple & banana, yogurt, boiled egg, cake). I noticed some other shareholders boxes had juice & hamburger as opposed to my water & roast) and I gave my offered my boiled egg (can't eat that) to a lady seated neat to me, who surprised me by giving me her yogurt – fair trade?

See: another past Serena AGM report.

Saudi Ok, Africa Not

After listening to a week of stories on aid, development, and entrepreneurship, we emerged from Ted Global in Arusha to find one of the proponents of a new vision for development in Africa - outgoing British prime minister Tony Blair endorsing shady dealings that involve Saudi Arabia in the name of strategic relationships

The implications of this are that (accoring to the US & UK governments) is that corruption/economic transgressions in Saudi Arabia are ok, but not in Zimbabwe or (former aid darling) Uganda. But the effects of these are that no British high commissioner can come preach good good governance to Kenya, or any other African country.

Africans are not all corrupt, not are we without faults, but so are British and American and their agents. In the words of George Ayittey we will find African solutions to African problems and be wary of cheerleaders on governance.

NN (Part II)

In Part I I was unable to get enough local newspaper content. But when I got back to my room at the end of Day 3 (Wednesday, around 7 pm), I found a “dear me” letter from the hotel reception and attached to it were three English newspapers – just as I had requested, and even though it was the end of the day, that was great! But unfortunately they were from the day before (Tuesday). Still you work and I was later able to get several Swahili newspapers on Thursday.

So here goes: highlighting local financial & development issues and challenges specifically addressed to during the TED week

- There is a shortage of a new anti-malaria medicine - ALu (syrup), made by Norvatis to be given to infants. And the government will come up with a national HIV testing program. combating malaria and HIV were cited as major steps needed to be achieved to enable Africa to develop
- Celtel has lowered its Internet access charges from Tshs. 1766 to 475 (about $0.4) per MB downloaded. The company has also extended its East Africa network to Congo, Gabon and the giant DRC
- The Tanzania Chamber of commerce, industry and agriculture won an afriglobal African achiever award in South Africa.
- Tanzania exported 51,000 tons of coffee last year, earning the country earning about $100 million
- Education will get the highest allotment (17.1%) of the country’s 5.1 trillion ($4.2 billion) budget to be announced this month.
- In preparing for the budget, the government has commissioned a report to crack down on vehicle misuse – it is estimated that the government owns over 800 land cruiser VX's that costs over 33 billion a year ($26 million) to run
- Ben Enterprises launches – kazitanzania.com - a database of quality jobs.
UNICEF donates 1,500 lap desks to Salei primary school in Arusha
- The government denies knowledge of Integrated Property Investments - a British firm that is reported to have acquired 120 acres of Indian Ocean shoreline in the Dar es Salaam area to set up a $20m mangrove plant.
- The University of Dar es Salaam has an evening MBA program
- The Tanzania government plans to start auditing all foreign mining companies to verify their processing and export figures
- Last year, the Tanzania post office system processed 17.7 million letters which was 8% less than the year before. Also reducing (by 5%) were the number of parcels leaving country and the number of registered letters (down 19%). All these were attributed to advances in technology (email, SMS, fax).
- Tanzania wants most of the 500,000 refugees from Burundi to return to their country by year end
- Zara solar limited (of Northern Tanzania) has been nominated an Ashden Award (winners to be announced on June 21 in London) that recognizes outstanding sustainable energy projects. Zara sold over 3,600 solar PV systems, benefiting 18,000 people. It is estimated that 10% of the country and only 2% of rural population have access to the electricity grid.
- Fastracking of teachers to fill acute shortages at newly built secondary schools may be lowering the quality of education.
- USAID has commissioned a 2 year environmental education program that will be administered by the Jane Goodall Institute.
- The World Bank will offer vulture aid to help developing countries stuck with high & expensive commercial debt following an infamous fleecing case of the Zambia government by a European investment- vulture fund.

Vanity Fair Africa

From Crunk & Disorderly



In his talk, Bono had mentioned that he had persuaded Graydon Carter to have Vanity Fair do an issue highlighting Africa. Here's one of the 20 different covers.

What's inside? See the table of contents

TED: CDF

Had a breakfast chat with the Member of Parliament for Laisamis (in Northern Kenya), Joseph Lekuton who's here at TED to give a brief talk this morning and we discussed the constituency development fund in program in Kenya.

CDF was established in 2003 and is a program that directs 2.5% of the Kenya government revenue (from taxes) to be directly apportioned to the 210 constituencies depending on their population and other demographics. Local committees administer the fund and pick the programs which are to be financed e.g schools, dispensaries. The Laisamis CDF has disbursed its full allocation of about $600,000 for the year which he has committed to deliver services to his constituents who are largely nomadic.

More stories about the MP and Marsabit district, where Laisamis is located, which has a dedicated website.

NN

I am newsless newswise (NN). TED has been great so far but I also want to know more about Tanzania on my first trip here (wandering around Lunga Lunga does not count)

One of the ways to appreciate what's happening in a country (political, financial, investment, government, arts, developmentetc.) is to read as many local newspapers as possible - because while there are billions of things found online that a newspaper will not contain, there are also thousands of things in a daily newspaper that cannot be adequately captured online. However here at TED i have had a very hard time getting a newspaper to read.

I woke up on Day 1 (Monday morning) expecting to find newspapers available (free or tot buy) in the hotel lobby or gift shop. But I was told that daily newspapers would only arrive in the afternoon – which I found strange. And unlike in Nairobi or Kampala, there are no vendors milling around hotels selling newspapers. Have i found stumbled upon something here? Is the reading culture different from Uganda or Kenya and does that mean anything for the East African Community? Or is it just that guests at this premier hotel are usually not interested in the Tanzanian daily papers?

On Day 2 (Tuesday) I even got up at 5:30 a.m. and went in search of any shuttle driver (who transports delegates across town to conference) to buy and bring me a papers in the morning and I even left money at the reception.

So, after two days, I have got three newspapers. Day 1: Citizen, and Mtanzania (Swahili), that I that I bought at 1 PM from a vendor at the hotel. Day 2: the African that I believe was brought by a shuttle driver at about 12 PM. I have also had a change to read the Tuesday daily nation (Kenya) - a copy which belongs to the hotel.

I have become something of a newsless nuisance (NN) to the hotel staff who seem bemused at my desire to locate a newspaper in the morning (fresh with news for the day) – as if I am awaiting an important fedex package which I can't trace.

It seems I may have to go to town myself to buy more papers like the business times, Arusha Times as well as other newspapers.

We'll see what Day 3 brings....

Mandatally Manji

Chatting with Hash at TED this morning about the entrepreneurship and I got to talking about a book I had recently read. Before long, we agreed that it was a good story that would be worth repeating here this week. Kumeckucha [Blog] had posted on this a while ago)

A few weeks ago, I had read the autobiography of the late Mandatally Manji, an Asian-Kenyan who who founded House of Manji which he built into the largest regional biscuit company.

He was encouraged by his family to put his life's' story together and it's a fascinating story for any budding entrepreneur to read on. He details how;

- From being a clerk transporting commodities around Central Kenya he came up with his plan to start a bakery.
- After hard work and sweat many years later, he achieved his dream when through a partnership he was able to buy and run a bakery with a perfect location and healthy customer base in Nairobi.
- How he chose to walk away from the bakery in frustration at his his dead weight partner who contributed little to the success of the bakery.
- Having to start all over again with even less, as his former partner was slow in paying him for his shares
- Dealing with macro economic problems - and having to produce biscuits even as basics commodities like sugar and wheat were rationed and diverted to the war (WWII)effort.
- Dealing with discriminatory/political barriers – and winning customers and contracts away from European bakeries through unmatched service and delivery.
- Ingenuity to keep producing bread and biscuits by observing and experimenting. This he did by adapting the the cooking habits of his employees who used grains not known (or rationed) by the Colonial Government. His competitors accused of him of souring from the black market as they could not imagine how his bakery was able to keep producing.

It's a great book that's less than 200 pages long, but very hard to find.

More:
- Earlier post on Manji by Kumeckucha.
- Wikipedia entry
The book can found at amazon (though pricey)

TED Global: History Rhymes

Dr. Ken Vickery of North Carolina State University gave a talk on past leaders in Africa and their engagement in entrepreneurial zeal and partnerships on their own terms to benefit their people.

- Nzinga Mbemba the Manikongo (leader) of the Kongo in the 16th century who entered into a joint venture with the Portuguese where his people would receive education and Christianity in exchange for ivory and slaves. His son was eventually consecrated by the pope as the first African roman catholic bishop. But Portuguese did not fulfill their end of the deal, negotiating around him to get greater even greater numbers of slaves and corrupting his court. His relationship with the Portuguese is chronicled in 22 letters that are now widely published.

- Ja Ja, King of the Opobo Kingdom, in the 1880's. Got into a partnership with the English for ship palm oil. When he felt he was not getting a fair deal from shipping companies so he set out to establish his own shipping line. For this he was captured and exiled by the British.

- Third was African counties in the post independence area (early 1960's to mid 70') their economies GNP's grew post independence and they delivered services such as education and health care and largely performed as governments. They were not basket cases until the oil crisis and collapse of raw material market shocks destabilized their growth patterns.

So even as we stand at the dawn of a new era of partnerships of trade, development, debt, aid, etc., remember that history rhymes.

Ted Global Arusha

Mentioned earlier about being blessed/fortunate in life to see people like Michael Jordan (destroy Washington in their last game as the Bullets, though Scottie Pippen provided the winning dunk), Michael Schumacher (win the first US grand prix) and Tiger Woods (not enjoying his first US open). That all compares with being at TED Global in Arusha at which Kenya is well represented.

I will use this weeek to relax & learn from such esteemed speakers, participants, delegates, fellows and our Tanzanian hosts. (Read on who else is here, and what happened on Day 1 here, here, here)

Where's Safaricom? Not met anyone here from the company whose M-PESA is touted by so many people (from around the world) here as a revolutionary enabler and an example of a means to empower millions by giving them financial accessibility & income earning potential

Madaraka Banking Week

The African Development Bank sets up a regional office in Nairobi.

CFC - Stanbic merger on track.

Dar es Salaam community bank extending their rights issue offer by one month to June 30.

A bank site was hacked (this one?)

Family Bank is being sued for making a bribery allegation against a Central bank official

First Community Bank to be Kenya's first Islamic Bank

An blog investor perspective on the Housing Finance rights issue

KCB plans to open 2 0 branches in Sudan. Also there brief panic created by a smoky generator this week atop Kencom House.

CFA's wanted: Investment banking gets even more lucrative now in Kenya

Forget the tip jar

This past week I discovered two jobs where one is forced to receive extra money just for doing their job (and it's not a bribe)

First is for workers at the harbour/ports. Even honest people walk away with (a minimum) Kshs. 2,000 at the end of the day in lunch money from grateful transporters just for doing their job. These guys (transporters) pay so many bribes that when someone does their job without asking for a bribe, they still can't get over that and press some cash into the reluctant hands of the officers.

Then, passing through the airport yesterday, I overhead several travelers, too bothered to reprice the cost of a cup of coffee in Kenya shillings, pay 1 or 2 dollars or pounds and dash off to their gate. How that money is shared is another matter – but when an 80 shillings soda is paid for with a £1 note (equivalent) to about 130 shillings, there's a healthy cut for someone – and probably more than any tip jar would bring in. This is probably a common occurrence in in the tourism industry (see how tour van drivers usually have plenty of dollars to sell)

KPLC unbundled

A new company will be spun off from the Kenya Power and Lighting Company once PricewaterhouseCoopers complete a review and formulate a balance sheet for the new transmission company.

RVR shutdown: Kenya Ports Authority has ended a contract with Rift Valley Railways for non performance. What ails the company that has invested so much in new trains? Well the actual railway is still run by Kenya railways who have not seen any significant investment in years (but who have just advertised for a new MD)

Other Madaraka Jobs
most from the papers

Aureos Kenya a private equity funds is seeking investment professionals. Apply by
20/6 the managing partner at 43233-00100 Nairobi.

British airways: Trade sales manager east Africa, Corporate sales manager East Africa. Apply to hcapjobs@wananchi.com by 8/6

Investment Research Consultants at Kaimana Consulting to evaluate investment opportunities in the emerging markets of Eastern Africa. Apply to jobs@kaimanaconsulting.com.

Uchumi Anniversary

One year ago today, Uchumi closed down. The management resigned, and the government later stepped in with a rescue package, receiver manager, and arrangement with the company’s' banks.

AGM season; Yesterday Uchumi held a meeting for shareholders. Watching KTN, it appears the media were kept out (as had been at past shareholder meetings). I was not able to attend (as a shareholder) and I am requesting any reader who attended to comment with a synopsis or key issues mentioned at the Uchumi meeting or any other AGM at KICC yesterday. Anonymous comments are given less weight, so do sign your comment with a name/profile please. (Media reports here and here)

This is AGM season and there are too many events to cover. I have tried to avoid going back to the same companies, but when you have two or three on a given day, in addition to other duties – yesterday company AGM's included Nation Media Group, Standard chartered and Uchumi, one can't be everywhere.

Uchumi Receivership: Media reports indicate that Uchumi (under receivership) may have improved performance by 50% over their best recent year. The audited results have not been released do they public, nor do they when a company is under receivership.

A receiver / manager (RM) (or bank hangman) is appointed by debenture holders (usually bank or financial institution) when they see a company is going to crash. His/her job is to salvage what they can for the banks to recover their money (usualy by sale of assets), not other shareholders or suppliers. By that measure, the Uchumi team (led My Mr. Ciano) has gone an extra mile in engaging & informing suppliers and shareholders in the recovery plan. Shareholders because Uchumi needs their goods on the shelves and shareholders to raise money.

RM's usually are unable to revive companies. This is because, by the time they are appointed, the company is beyond salvation. The owners/management will have run it down, hidden information from banks on the poor performance of the company, withheld payments to banks, staff and unfortunately to the tax man and city council, among other fatal decisions.

Some RM's have gotten very rich in this country, selling the assets of the company to themselves – at throwaway prices, employing their relatives, and enjoying the power to manager giant companies that they would not have risen to manage even if they had worked for 50 years. For others it has become a permanent way of life, as the company (under their management) remains profitable and they see it as a long term job – see the Naiorbi Grand Regency Hotel - that has been run by different RM's for over 10 years now). RM's also have to contend with lengthy court battles with the previous owners who also meddle in the company's affairs through proxies.

But occasionally, and if appointed early enough, an RM can actually save a company. He/she can make some harsh decisions to trim fat e.g. shut down an unprofitable unit that was consuming too much money, terminate bad contracts, and fire excess/expensive employees. They are able to make decisions that a sentimental management were unable to. It has happened before (rarely) and sometimes the now greatful previous owners will acknowledge the work of the RM to turn around the company and will now come back and pay the bank and takeover their now lean & profitable company.

Kenya Re 2006

Kenya Re published their 2006 results in preparation for IPO planned for June. Assets were up from Kshs. 11.6 billion in 2005 to 12.8 billion ($183 million) in 2006 and net insurance premium revenue rose from 2.1 to 2.8 billion over the same period. The year also saw management expenses increase from Kshs. 290 to 453 million resulting in a reduction of pre-tax profit from Kshs. 947 million in 2005 to 762 million ($10.9 million) in 2006.

Kenya Re accounts are straight forward, but insurance reporting is tricky. Once a year, usually between March & May), insurance companies publish their year end results. But there is no rhyme, some report only total assets, some don't report profit/loss, or net asset positions while others have more/less detail – making it difficult to compare and see which companies are performing better. I wish their reporting could be harmonized.