Safaricom IPO starts

The launch ceremony was held on Friday morning, and this came after several lively debates on TV news shows last night on the issue of if the IPO should go on

A bit of politics: ODM and civil society were a bit late to the party (they have known for two weeks that this was coming), with final complaints about Mobiltelea. And ODM MP’s (Anyang Nyongo and Omingo Magara) went ahead to put a caveat notice in the newspaper today warning investors that the Safaricom privatization is being done outside of existing privatization law, the privatization commission supposed to oversee the process has been sidelined and that there are conflicts of interest among transaction advisers.

That out of the way, it is clear that Minister Amos Kimunya and the rest of Government doesn’t want to hear about Mobitelea or have anything derail the IPO which will net about 50 billion shillings ($770 million) to the Government for rebuilding.

Why start early?: That out of the way, day one is rather quiet, with not too many queues outside some stockbroker offices. But there’s almost a month to go, and Kenyans are not very time conscious initially. This will change next week, as investors will have been bombarded with questions of the process, are looking for cash or are wading though loan sharek offers from various banks and SACCO’s before placing their orders. I hope ether won’t be calls to extend the process for late-comers late in April!

Official sites: Safaricom also launched a revamped website to coincide with the IPO. There are also two official sites, for online applications and information - but the prospectus is yet to be put up on either.

Shooting blanks: All week long the Business Daily has been promising a feature edition that would help investors identify the good from the bad brokers. But when your own CEO is a director of a stockbrokerage, that’s about as serious as a member of Karen club complaining about the green on the 18th hole at Muthaiga club course. The 20 page issue issue aimed at sophisticated investors does not name names or go beyond tips and guidance on ethical stockbrokers, how to select a broker, qualities to look for in a broker (office premises, reporting frequency, staff qualifications, ownership - How??) for 20 pages full of advertisements by the same brokers. So you’ll have to be satisfied blogs, forums or other online channels to find out the good and the bad of brokers.

East African investors: CFC announced this week that they have they have crossed the 100,000 CDS (online investors) account mark. But a Uganda stockbroker does not get expect to get more than 2,000 applications owing o the passport requirements
- Meanwhile you can design a logo for EASEA - the East African Stock Exchanges Association.

Other opportunities from the papers

Jobs
- Barclays: relationship manager - SME banking, local business development manager, local business advisor. human.resources@barclays.com
- Deloitte: (2) business Analysts’ corporate financial services: hr@deloitte.co.ke by 5/5
- Insurance regulator authority; manager technical, finance manager, company secretary (legal manager), commins@skyweb.co.ke by 15/4

Safaricom IPO: Prospectus Peek

Thanks M

At the end of it all there are people who will but the company regardless of what is in the prospectus or will not buy. So does it matter?

IPO pool

Domestic pool
6.5 billion Shares total (runs from 26 march to 23 April)
- Individuals (retail) 3.38 billion shares (just 52%) minimum lot is 2,000 shares
- Qualified institutional investors (insurers, pensions and other entities recognized by the RBA) 2.73 billion shares (42%). Minimum lost is 100,000 then 10,000 after
- authorized dealers 130 million shares ( 2%) – minimum 2,000
- employees 260 m shares (4%) minimum is 2,000

International pool
- 3.5 billion Shares set aside and targeted at long term investors. (runs from 9th April to 23rd April)
- 30 million shillings ($461,000) per order minimum, and price will be set by book building

Inside Safaricom
Balance sheet assets of 68 billion $1 billion) in September 2007, but with negative nets (current assets 9b, 22b current liabilities). In March 2007, it was much better (CA 10b, CL 13B)
- The company owns no land or buildings

P&L: 9 month profit before tax of 16 billion, up from 12b a year ago – and company is on track for 21 billion pre-tax profit in 2008.
- Revenue has been increasing at abut 30% a year: operating expenses take up 40% of revenue; while SGA take another 10% (average annual increases have been 100% for marketing, 40% admin and 30% for staff each year)

Competition & subscribers
As at December ’07 the company had 9.2m subscribers, up from 5m a year before. Safaricom claims an 80% market share to Celtel's 18% (2.1m subs)
- But Celtel hurts: Average revenue per user (ARPU) at Dec 07 of 650 shillings (583 pre paid, 3,968 post), down from 816 shillings (705, 5,708) a year ago. This is due to adding new subscribers, with lower spending capacity in rural areas and reduced all rates following competition. They lost fewer customers (churn) ever since they allowed free replacement of lost SIM cards
- Also voice minutes (9 months): Dec 07 352 million, Dec 06 203 million
- Operating margin Sept 07 31%, Sep 06 36%: this has dropped as a result of chasing new customers with reduced tariffs and increased marketing expenses

Staff
- Key managers take home about 200 million shillings a year, while all employees take home 2 billion in compensation.
- Like at Kenya airways, foreign partner (Vodafone) will continue to appoint CEO and Financial controller (Michael Joseph contact runs through mid-2009)
- Has 1,145 employees ( ½ in customer care) in 2007, up from 535 in 2003

Odd points
- IPO budget includes just 5 million for PR and 2 million for advertising, but it sells itself
- Prospectus lists a shareholder PST who will appoint directors – cut & paste job?
- lead transaction advisor (Jimnah Mbaru & Co) bid just 0.05 cents for the job
- The dreaded word Mobitelea appears 4 times and the mysterious company owns 5% of Safaricom through (12.5% of Vodafone (K) limited’s 40%. It is mentioned in the context of a public accounts committees report (risk factor). But Standard Chartered’s 1% owner has not bothered anyone for years, so is it an issue really?

Short term outlook
- Dividend in 2007 was 4 billion shillings out of 17 billion profit, 3b the year before. But that is yet to be paid out - Telkom are owed 2.4 billion but that will be used to offset some of their debts to Safaricom.
- First AGM likely in September
- Weak shilling: and/or high interest rates are bad for the company in the short term

Long term
- Revenue of $677m in the last 9 months compared to $194m Celtel for 2007 – and an EBITDA of 44% to Celtel‘s 16% hmmm – whose managing Celtel? Will they dispute any of these numbers?
- Country risk: Derives all its revenue from Kenya, so if you don’t believe in Kenya, this is not for you
- Competition (5 mobile companies) but competition will hurt/affect all companies
- Threat to banks?: M-pesa (virtual money accounts & transfer service) has been registering about 6,000 applicants per day and has 700,000 users. But Vodafone owns the M-pesa solution and Safcom pays them.

Mostly Safaricom: 2 days to IPO

Prospectus is out

but before that
- The Kenya Capital Investment Group has a nice post to guide Diaspora investors considering the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) for the first time
- Which broker to use for Safaricom? Check out the Business daily on Friday March 28 for a guide to stockbrokers – the good, the bad, and the rogue. Afrika investment bank is the newest (previously was Ashbhu Securities) I-bank now.
– beyond Safaricom I Co-op bank announces plans to list, which is a great overdue addition to the NSE
– beyond Safaricom II and if the Finance Minister is by chance short in his bid to raise money from the privatization process, I’ve always maintained that he should go after another prime company; Kenya Pipeline - with pre-tax profits of Kshs. 4 billion (and EPS of 163), ripe for a split and a listing
– loans for shares: Joining equity bank in offering 100% financing is family bank, oriental and national bank so far. I may change my stance on loans for shares if I see a bank with a clear policy of loan prepayment, in case say 80% of the cash is not utilized – so an investor is not left with a loan to squander, instead of shares to sell
- Investors will be able to use pesa point ATM’s to pay for IPO shares
- Housing finance signing with Safaricom’s M-Pesa for money transfer last week shows how traditional companies like Western Union have been overtaken by changes in the banking industry.
– Writing in the Financial Standard (Tuesday) Jonathan Somen, CEO of Access Kenya (the last ICT company to be listed) calls Safaricom a good short term buy as they have performed prior to the arrival of France’s Orange (formerly Telkom Kenya) and India’s Essar (through Econet)
– Africa Alliance has opened an IPO center in Nairobi - open from 7am to 7 pm
– DYK: You have to apply to use the Kenya flag on any product? Safaricom have received permission to use it on scratch cards, the Tea Board of Kenya to display it on tea packets, and Nike International (through their lawyers) to sell it on hooded jackets!
- Pay for mail; CDS will for the first time require IPO applicants to pay Kshs. 30 for mailing each confirmed allocation.

NSSF: apples & oranges

Kenya’s National Social Security Fund finally released their year end results in the newspapers today after many years of pressure by governance experts and regulators. The scheme hopes to convert into a pension fund and states that it plans to hold an AGM soon

While the statements show improved performance over the last four years (NSSF-K was abused in the 1990’s and forced into bad property investments and lost billions in collapsed banks), how does it compare with NSSF Uganda who released their results last week?

approximate conversion to US$

Buildings/property/land
NSSFK $434 million (35%)
NSSFU $76 million (13%)

Government Securities
NSSFK $115 million (9%)
NSSFU $289 million (51%)

Equities
Uganda list their holdings. – as Uganda Clays , Baroda, Nsimbe, DFCU, Stanbic, Serena, HFCU, Victoria properties. Kenyan one does not list but would include Unilever Tea, Nation media group, HFCK (11%) KCB (8%) British American Tobacco (20%) East African Breweries (8%), EAP cement (27%), and National Bank (48%)
NSSFK $618 million
NSSFU $54 million

Current assets
NSSFK $50 million
NSSFU $350 million

Current Liabilities
NSSFK $20 million
NSSFU $11 million

Members Funds
NSSFK $1,240 million
NSSFU $548 million

Totals assets
NSSFK $1,240 million
NSSFU $564 million

Income:
NSSFK $61 million
NSSFU $38 million
however the Kenyan one include changes in market value of shares in last year, adding another $80m to bring total income to $141m

Costs
NSSFK $41 million
NSSFU $7 million

Net Gain/Profit
NSSFK $147 million
NSSFU $31 million

Earlier:
- Under its current format, the ultimate payout will be low from NSSF(K) and the benefits at retirement will not be enough to sustain a majority of retirees
- Comparison between Stanbic Kenya and Stanbic Uganda.

IPO Day 3: Mostly Safaricom

- What do you know? The IPO's official site is inactive/inaccessible a day after going live.
- For anyone new to Safaricom here’s how they became so successful

News Bits

- Safaricom has introduced an airtime voucher worth just 20 shillings (~$0.30): what does that smaller sale unit say about the economy?
- Bargains: Safaricom has halved the price of blackberry and is also selling Samba Modems for just Kshs. 3,000 ($42)
- Air-wars: Good for Kenya Airways (KQ); Delta Airlines (US) has delayed their new service from New York to Nairobi (scheduled for June 08) to start in December owing to current market conditions. Bad for KQ; Emirates will start passenger services to the Guangzhou (China) in July 2008 four times weekly and convert to daily flights from December.
- Why would Coca Cola introduce a Fanta Lite and sell it in the same bottle & packaging at 50/= instead of 40/=

Jobs: Available at Safaricom and Google, while regulator, the Capital Markets Authority is still searching for a chief executive amidst the region’s largest ever IPO.

Safaricom IPO: Day 2

Apply online: For Safaricom shares, check out the Official IPO site from Citi

Bears bleed
- NSE Bears: For the second day of the Safaricom IPO era, only 3 NSE shares rise, same as on Friday, while the rest drop or are flat.
- Farewell: To Bear Stearns sold for $2 a share, down from $170 a year ago and 7% of what it was worth on Friday.

Vultures circle:
Beware of loans for shares
- Equity Bank offering up to 80% finance for the Safaricom IPO
- Fanikisha account from Transnational Bank offering 70% finance towards the IPO

edit - We've been Punk'd!
Corporate blog: A big salute to Equity for breaking another milestone - presenting the first official bank blog - here's the Equity Bank Blog. a WIP, but keep it up, stay strong, relevant, and up-to-date
Thanks JP for looking out

Motoring moment: asset finance personified

nice poster here from Lunch over IP on urban transport solutions

The traffic crunch in Nairobi has gotten worse in the last week since 1/3 of the city’s commuters had restrictions placed on their access to downtown Nairobi.

It’s fait to say that over ¾ of cars from KAP___ onwards (cars registered in the last five years) are financed with asset or bank loans - so they are a reflection of the amount of credit in the economy.

But the traffic crunch will continue unless some serious measures are taken as there are few new roads or new parking spaces coming up in the city

What are some solutions?
- Better public transport as the image above shows.
- Restriction on vehicle imports/registrations; But bad for the economy, encourage corruption
- Restrictions on asset finance lending; but bad for banks
- Restrictions on vehicle use e.g. only use vehicles ending with odd number on one day, even the next: but favors the rich (with more than one car) and will encourage fraudulent license switching
- The India way (as adopted by Uganda) and small town in Kenya which is to have motorbikes as taxis. This would be great for those who work in the upper hill area
- Car pooling, temporary parking meters, new capital city? The list is endless

Smart investing the Safaricom IPO

The financial part of the day is over with no announcement on the start of the Safaricom IPO; when it comes, should still not matter as chasing an IPO is a futile matter for a savvy retail investor. This is how it works - buy the shares after they list, not by queuing for hours around the block only to get 50 shares and 90% refund cheques.

All Kenyan IPO’s priced at less than 10 shillings have been greatly over-subscribed and this one which falls in that range could be the biggest.

So wait for the shares to list, and then buy. They may be floated at 10 shillings, and open at 25 - but have you lost anything? Not if you and 300,000 other shareholders all start off with 50 – 100 shares each. In fact you have a head start as you will have your money ready while the others wait for their refund cheques to be processed

What else to do;
- Buy through an investment club or a company if those groups get preferential allocations
- Buy other shares that may drop in price
- Marry a Safaricom employee, or better yet - get a job there and apply through the employee pool
- Use a reputable stockbroker stockbroker or bank

What not to do;
- Don’t take a loan to buy IPO shares.
- Don’t buy through multiple names/relatives/companies – you’ll have to chase a refund for each and consolidate after.
- Don't wait for the Econet option - I've being writing about their launch/imminent rollout in Kenya for as long as this blog has existed

That's what I'm doing: any other suggestions for maximum returns?


FAUX PAX
Ooops, spoke too soon - sorry Mr. Minister

Kenya sets Safaricom IPO share price at 5 shillings
NAIROBI, March 14 (Reuters) - Kenya is to offer a 25 percent stake to the public in leading mobile phone operator Safaricom at 5 shillings per share, Finance Minister Amos Kimunya said on Friday. Kimunya said the offer would open to the public on March 28 and close April 26. There will be 10 billion shares for sale. The proposed Safaricom sale may prove a key test of domestic and foreign investor confidence in east Africa's largest economy after negative effects of the post-election political crisis. (Reporting by George Obulutsa)

Still the math does not change. Assume a realistic 3 million shareholders, they can each get 3,333 shares each at a cost of 17,000 each - still means over-subscription, and that does not factor in any preferential allocations for corporates and employees, reducing the pool

Bank Wars: Pepea

Barclays is really going after small accounts holders and low savers such as students. The latest account is called Pepea (implies lightness) which is an ATM-based account with a flat fee of just 100 shillings ($1.5) and 20/= per ATM withdrawal – putting it in the range of Equity’s 50/= fees. This extends Barclays aggressive growth to counter Equity Bank – to an extent that it seems they are subsiding services in order to gain deposits and accounts.

With Pepea, you actually get penalized if you have more than 30,000 shillings ($425) in your account.

Rogue brokers?

A somewhat irresponsible article in the wake of the collapse of Nyaga Stockbrokers last week – fingers four more brokers that the (now awake) regulator has issues with. An article of this magnitude about a bank could cause a run on deposits or worse.

But the firms - Solid Securities, Reliable, Crossfield and Discount Securities appear not to have been affected, and a causal visit to their offices shows they are are devoid of crowds of panicked investors as seen on TV last week. These are not ‘rogue’ brokers robbing their clients, just some brokers who have other regulatory issues to sort out.

Kenya Easter Tourism Expo

Compared to last year’s expo, the first tourism expo of the year at Sarit Center had fewer stands, foreign exhibitors, and focus was on getting domestic tourists to rediscover the usual haunts.

You have to salute the industry for going ahead and trying to rebuild after two months of violence wiped out a decade of steady growth. While they were advertising Easter packages (discounts of about 10% if booked at the fair), their goal was to get the sector back on track in the long term.

Here are a few of the offerings still have a bias for the Coast;

new
- Holiday Homes Kenya, a network of fully staffed private homes for holiday.
– New Man Eaters Camp by Voi Wildlife Lodge at the site of the infamous man eating lions that terrorized railways builders in 1898
- Mombasa Continental hotel (former intercontinental hotel) opened in December 07 (days before election) has introductory rates valid up to December 20, 2008
- Wild Waters theme park in Nyali - which closed in January when the tourists left, but reopened over the weekend (March 9)

Coast
– Jacaranda Beach flying package from Nairobi for East Africa residents for Kshs. 22,400 (inclusive of 2 nights)
- Kenya Bay Beach Hotel has these prices for 2008; Kshs. 3,700 (up to April 30), Kshs. 3200 up to June 30, and Kshs. 3,500 (July up to December 31) (all half board, per person sharing)– lock in these low rates for the rest of the yeat before the tourism prices pick up
– Sun n Sand no special offers, but the hotel is still a favorite for state and private sector retreats at the coast, so may not struggle

Wildlife safaris
- Discover Wilderness has flying packages to the Mara (keekorok) and Samburu for Kshs. 24,950 per night and Kshs. 11,950 for extra night – (includes 3 game drives, full board valid up June 30)
- Serena have flying package to the Mara, Amboseli, Samburu, (2 nights, 2 game drives at 40,000 pp)

other
- Kenya Wildlife Services: who have self catering bandas in Amboseli, Tsavo and Mt. Kenya as well as Homa Bay, Marsabit, Mt. Elgon, Malindi and Kisite-Mpunguti (Kwale)
- Nairobi's Silver Springs Hotel has two new sister premises in Sangare Tented Camp and Green Hills Hotel in Nyeri

Airlines
- Discovered some ‘truths’ behind Fly 540 airline: low special offers; that $79 Entebbe and Juba $199 fare to Juba re one way and translate to $135 and $279 after the hefty taxes on both routes. So a round trip to Entebbe costs $270 while Nairobi-Juba and back is $558
- Air Kenya with their point to point flights are the best way for a tourists to avoid Kenya’s roads and get around in as little time as possible – so you can fly from Mombasa to Masai Mara, Mombasa-Kilimanjaro, fly from Nairobi to Lewa , from Samburu to Masai Mara etc.
- Virgin Atlantic have $425 Nairobi to London and $829 fares to Los Angeles or San Francisco

Elsewhere
not at the trade fair, but in the news over the weekend
Lewa marathon sponsored by Safaricom is open for registration up to 23/5
- Vipingo Ridge, a housing estate/golf course under development in Kilifi (40km north of Mombasa) by Rea Vipingo was a sponsor at the Kenya Open Golf Course. Some plots of land are still available but not much info is online yet about it.

Failure to Learn

March 5 2008 marked the end of the 2nd 6 month statutory management period for after the collapse of Francis Thuo stockbrokers. It also came to mark the beginning of a 6th month statutory management period for another stockbroker - Nyaga Stockbrokers which was a much larger operation than the former.

In the collapse of the second stockbroker, there is a failure to learn from the mistakes of the former, and also myopia in regulation and awareness.

The CMA and NSE continue to treat Nyaga and FT stockbrokers like a rogue computer that has gone amok and chewed up stockbrokers funds. It was not - it had directors, managers, and employees. Who are these people? We have not heard any names or their stories, explanations, their questioning/arrest/convictions/disbarment's/fines etc.

It’s a trend we have here: looking at all the recent financial scandals we have had Charterhouse, Invesco, Francis Thuo, Euro Bank, and even the Electoral Commission of Kenya (bad math in 2007) - an organization is condemned (after it collapses), a beautiful report is written (and filed away), while the principals/employees walk away scot free.

From the big scandals of the past, over 40 bank collapses in the 1990’s, including giants Trade and Trust Bank’s not many lessons have been learnt. We have a culture that does not allow us to learn from the past, and dooms us to repeat those mistakes in future. It was only with Goldenberg (and to a lesser extent Anglo Leasing) where after the principals and officers were called forward to explain their odd (& previously secret) actions that some level of truth came out. That should be a model for dealing with other and future scandals; public hearings, not behind boardroom doors, and public reports, which will make it easier for anti-corruption prosecutors.

It is a dark secret in banking that very few employees are ever convicted of financial crimes and scams at their place of employment. What happens to these bank and stockbrokers employees, and where are they now? I don’t want them to move to CFC, but chances are they will get jobs with other brokers and bankers. They will lie low, but it's only a matter of time before the easy money trap sets in again; if they have amassed enough, they may even dabble in politics, or go for MBA’s...

There, I hope they encounter business classes looking at the past scandals, case studies on Goldenberg, Trade, Trust, Prudential Building Society, the genesis of Consolidated Bank, and the collapse of stockbrokers in 2007/08. Etc. Otherwise such events will recur in 2009 and 2010.

But some things can’t be fixed, and one Kenyan bank will collapse about every other year, a trend that is likely to continue as the industry continues to absorb the shocks of the post election period.

Other timely reading
- Are the shocks over? Coldtusker hints at other brokers
- Riba Capital’s infamous rogue broker alters from October 06 and April 2007, the second of which had Nyaga brokers at the top of the list
- Nyaga Stock Brokers
Nyaga Stockbrokers has received a warning from Capital Markets Authority in regard to their issuing of Bouncing cheques something similar to what Francis Thuo and Partners did.

This broker has been struggling for several months to clean up its act to avoid being suspended but the problems have been running deeper with the MD claiming that the only bouncing cheques they issued were those of Eveready IPO refund a claim which Eveready refutes and which other stockbrokers disagree with.

There are reports also that this broker was involved in illegal ‘shorting of the market’ whereby they would sell clients shares without authority on a market peak and buy back on a market slump. The CMA is said to have summoned the broker 2 weeks ago and given them an ultimatum to clean up something which the NSE had raised much earlier. If this does not happen, then we could see another broker going down due to money trouble.

- How to change your broker

Skunkworks: Nairobi March 4

A Skunkworks (blog) meeting yesterday was hosted by (7 month old) Google Kenya, and it was attended by an interesting mix of engineers, webhosts, designers, admins, bloggers and rivals of Google, - who all listened as Google employees explained their aps and maps.

some scribbled notes

- There’s an ongoing Google East Africa competition for students to develop gadgets for Google (closes March 17)
- They are mapping the country with Google map’s – started with Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru, with a Kenyan team, doing the mapping work, using the tools. Ideally the next step will be for maps to stream into local yellow pages
- Safaricom have the largest customer base of any kind in Kenya – 8 million strong – and so Google partnered with them to give all their subscribers free e-mail. Many people’s introduction was and still remains, accessing an email account.
- Ushaidi was cited as an examples of enhanced use of a Google platform
- Google in Africa for the long term, with an altruistic motive of sharing local content & information – and currently get less than 1% of revenue from Africa. They helped NTV set up a Youtube platform that has been a big success in terms of Kenyans abroad now able to watch local news online. They monetize in three ways - videoads, adsense, search box advertising. Kenya/Africa needs to get more local content up. Already some local web sites are making good money off adsense that is enough to sustain their online operations.
- Hot point #1 was bandwidth; or the performance of connectivity, service providers and other operators. They are known in the industry for short-changing consumers who are not wary and in the face of a regulator (CCK) who does not seem to care. There was a call for users to take the initiative, to test bandwidth speeds, and identify those with superior speeds and those who were short-changing consumers (a model from Australia called Whirlpool to test broadband was mentioned as a model that could be used to do this)
- Hot point # 2 was the lack of investment in infrastructure/or the wrong kind of investment. Examples: There are 4 ethernet cables in Nairobi, but no cooperation between providers. Government is building data centers, but with no servers there. Local loops are not benefiting end users. It would be nice of government required new building developers to also install connectivity in buildings
- Other challenges with local advertising – does it work? Yahoo never advertised in Kenya; yet have more e-mail accounts through word of mouth. Google is working with universities to give them free e-mail as a way of building a long term relationship. There’s also a move to alert local advertising companies to the presnce of local site to advertise on.

There were many other conversations but they were drowned out by sounds of mouths slurping pizza slices and mshikaki’s.

Kutwa Tuesday

West to East: Following Bank of Africa (2004) and Ecobank (taking over EABS), West Africa's leading bank, United Bank of Africa (UBA) is making an entry to East Africa starting with Uganda and has also applied for a license to bank in Kenya. 

Venture Capital Fund: From the East African Development Bank (EADB) is now operational, with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in East Africa are eligible for funding. 

Uchumi’s turnaround : Uchumi have finally published their financial results of the receivership period from 2006 to 2008. The turnaround has been remarkable and in the half-year ending December 2007, they surpassed full-year sales from 2006 (year of collapse). Still, the current ratio is still poor (less than 1), but that’s about three times better than it was when the company sunk. 

The company lost 751 million in June 06, which improved the first year of receivership to a loss of 257m in 07 – and are on track to make a profit in 2008 – while operating fewer stores. It’s probably too soon to be re-listed (there would only be sellers, no buyers) and a dividend would not be likely for 5 years as the company still has an accumulated loss (negative reserves) of about 1 billion shillings ($15 million)

peeves two things irritate me though at Uchumi (i) their cashiers never have any shilling coins and insist on giving out sweets in lieu of change (ii) Cashiers’ who take advantage of my not having a u-card to top up their accounts with points I pay for. 

Insurer collapses: Invesco Assurance finaly goes under. The company which insured many matatu’s is now under statutory management and can’t make any policy payments or sign up new business. And when the history of the company is written, one paragraph must address why almost every insurance company (including Invesco) decided to put up an expensive office building in the Upper Hill area of Nairobi, far away from their core clientele.

Kenya Re profits: How much did Kenya Re earn in 2007? An interesting discussion at stockskenya. 

Diaspora dollars: How much do Kenyans abroad remit to the country (through official channels)? CBK reports $54 million in January 2008 and the country is on track for an increase from the $573 million sent in 2007. 

Dollar launderer: A Nation report cites US concern about money laundering in Kenya which has weak laws regarding the crime. The State Department report notes the difficulty as Kenya is a hub that mixes regional trade with exports to East & Central Africa, donor aid & NGO’s (managing over U.S. $1 billion annually), remittances from expatriate Kenyans estimated at $680-780 million annually, and Eastleigh Estate which handles unofficial remittances by the Somalia Diaspora. Also, though banks maintain records of transactions over U.S. $100,000 and international transfers over U.S. $50,000 (and report them to the CBK) they fear customer reactions to such release of information – and this was hammered home by a November 2007 court award that ordered Barclays Bank to pay a customer 400,000 shillings ($5,700) for providing customer details to the British High Commission.

New boards 

- The Kenya College of Communication and Technology (KCCT) board now has Michael Joseph, Nick Nesbitt, Naushad Merali and Paul Kukubo to guide some relevance in communications training. 

- The Resettlement fund (for election victims) has retired Archbishop Ndingi, former minister Akaranga, and retired athlete Kipchoge Keino on board.

Wanted

Savings A/C
I wanna be with “_____ Bank” but KCB need not apply
I want a savings account- that has no ledger fees, no monthly fees, or EFT fees, that has a reasonable minimum balance and sends statements out frequently. I want a savings account that emphasizes savings, not fees. Short-listed banks include ABC, Barclays, Consolidated, Equity, Stanbic, and Standard Chartered. Any other suggestions or referrals?

Kenol shareholder
I’d like a Kenol shareholder to volunteer and write up an account of the company’s AGM this coming Friday. Full credit will be given.

E-bill
Ever since their MD looked like he was about to leave, Kenya Power & Lighting Company’s revolutionary system of billing (by SMS or e-mail) have stopped. I have yet to see my bill and fear a power cut soon as this company is quick to cut of subscribers who default. I’ll pre-pay an estimated amount tomorrow just in case – to avoid the cut & expensive time-consuming reconnection hassle.

Explanations
Why this and Why that? - Or is it business as usual?