Kenya Bank Rankings in 2006

Barclays still rules at the end of 2006

figures in Kshs. millions

Bank assets 2006
change from 2005 rank in brackets
1. Barclays 118, 021 (Kshs 118 billion or $1.69 billion)
2. Kenya Commercial 87,326
3. Standard Chartered 81,014
4. Co-operative 57,683
5. (6) Citibank Kenya 37,794
6. (7) Commercial Bank of Africa 37,507
7. (5) National Bank of Kenya 36,123
8. (9) NIC 26, 108
9. (12) Stanbic 25,822
10. (8) CFC 25,392
11. (10) Investment & Mortgages 22,348
12. (11) Diamond Trust 21,564
13. Equity 20,024
14. (15) Baroda 11,773
15. (19) Prime 10,452
16. (17) Imperial 9,406
17. (14) Housing Finance 9,142
18. (16) EABS 8,910
19. (18) Bank of India 8,702
20. Fina 6,502
21. Bank of Africa 6,488
23. (22) ABC 5,357
24. Habib AG Zurich 5,323
25. (30) K-Rep 5,220
26. (23) Giro 5,098
27. (25) Guardian 4,917
28. (27) Southern Credit 4,580
29. (28) Victoria 4,284
30. (37) Chase 4,123
31. Equatorial 3,962
32. (33) Consolidated 3,437
33. (29) Middle East 3,401
34. (36) Development Bank of Kenya 3,297
35. (34) Habib Bank 2,963
36. (35) Credit 2, 610
37. Transnational 2,566
38. Fidelity 2,316
39. Paramount Universal 2,197
40. Oriental (formerly Delphis) 1,449
41. Dubai 1,248
42. City Finance 527
========
Notes
22 (32) Family Finance 5, 469 was not been licensed as expected
Charterhouse Bank was de-licensed in 2006

Pre-tax profit
Barclays 6,624 ($94.6 million)
StanChart 3,810
KCB 3,035
Citibank 1530
CBA 1,311

Return on assets
Barclays 5.61%
Equity 5.51%
Family Finance 4.83%
StanChart 4.70%
I&M 4.19%
Imperial 4.11%
Citibank 4.05%

Deposits
Barclays 93,837
KCB 71,495
StanChart 64,879
Co-op 48,201
CBA 32,517

Loans
Barclays 73,907
KCB 40,659
StanChart 35,762
Co-op 28,037
NBK 26,491

Branches
estimated
KCB 110
Postbank 66 (not a bank)
Barclays 53
Equity 42
Co-op 40

Staff expenses
KCB 3,823
Barclays 3,057
Co-op 2,081
StanChart 1,781
NBK 1,204
Equity 943

Loans to deposits
City Finance 183%
DBK 117%
K-Rep 114%
Transnational 103%
Dubai 93%

Government friendly banks
ratio of government securities investment to loans
Habib AG Zurich 210.46%
Habib Bank 195.07%
Baroda 140.66%
Bank of India 138.15%
StanChart 77.32%
Citibank 69.54%

Raking the Fees
% of income from non-interest (lending) sources
Oriental 60.49%
EABS 56.66%
Equity 55.27%
Paramount Universal 53.76%
Family Finance 53.11%
Co-op 51.35%

Related

- Earlier in depth review, analysis, and projections.

- 2005 rankings.

Chinese rescue Tiomin

Jinchuan Group Ltd of China will invest $9.4 million Kshs 640 million) in Tiomin by purchasing 72.5 million shares of the company (increasing their stake to 20%) and the improved cash posiiton will enable the Kwale project to go on.

See earlier project delay.

Safaricom blinks & the Nairobi barcamp

Saasa for life
Safaricom has extended its' Saasa tariff indefinitely (was due to expire on March 31) which has much cheaper calls and SMS’s from 2- 8 PM.

Celtel has come up with some much cheaper rates than Safaricom and many people (myself included) had been waiting to see what Safaricom would do to reign in customers considering a migration.

But for now my priority has changed to searching for a wireless communication provider. At the barcamp – the audience were asked how many had internet access at home – with only a fractional number saying 'yes' - because the costs are high. Next stop for me is to decide between Flashcom, Popote, Telkom Wireless, Celtel, KDN (Butterfly), Wananchi or Safaricom on a connection for a laptop. Another interesting option I read about but one which has to be discussed with the neighbors.

Barcamp
This was a great afternoon of interesting talks (interrupted by the Arsenal Liverpool game in between).

A notable point of discussion was the apparent disconnect between the business sector and the academia. With so many executives are taking parallel degree programmes on campus one would think they'd be an easy leap in mentoring and business incubation - but, no. A curious footnote was that audit/accounting firms like to hire engineering graduates (because of the analytical way they think) and many engineering students are disillusioned about their future prospects - smoething that will hopefuly be corrected by an ongoing curriculum review.

Others;
- Most interesting was how (Edit University of Nairobi) JKUAT students created a local area network (was also done at Moi University)
- Proposal to have another barcamp for content
- Stockskenya (by network associates) with popular bulletin boards and fantasy trading game which will plans to enable online trading

Real estate investment
Bandari villas in Bombolulu (Mombasa) will be completed later this year. The 105 maisonettes and 56 apartments are being put up by the pension fund of the Kenya Ports Authority and are located 6 km from Mombasa and 1.5 km off the Mombasa Malindi highway

The houses are being marketed at local investors and Kenyan in the Diaspora and will be sold by Lloyd Masika agents [e-mail bombolulu@lloydmasika.co.ke] at between 3.5 and 5 million shillings ($50,000 – 71,000)

More:
- This appears to be another write-up of the houses and write up
- More on the chequred past of the KPA pension scheme.
- An update of real estate investments from the Diaspora

Jobs
AY&R Group. Account directors, account managers, advertising creative teams, secretaries, graphic designers, graduate trainees, management accountant. Apply to AY&Rgroup_Info@ke.yr.com by 4/4
Brookside Dairies: country managers (Uganda and Tanzania), Sales Managers, chief accountant (Tz & Ug), accountants, sales supervisors, salesmen, merchandisers. Apply to hrm@brooksidedairies.co.ke by 15/4
Commercial Bank of Africa. Compliance unit manager, property manager, administration manager, management accountant, product development manager (personal banking), business development & projects manager (IT), Treasury sales. Apply to jobs@cba.co.ke by 16/4
Africa Regional HR manager at Crown Agents. Apply to jobscs@ke.crownagents.com by 13/4
CEO at East African Grantmakers Association. Apply to info@eaag.org by 23/4
Graduate trainees at East African Standard
Accountant at Kemri/CDC. Apply to recruitment@ke.cdc.gov by 13/4
K-Rep: branch managers, business development officers, bank clerks, system administrator, database administrator. Apply to chief HRO 25363-00100 by 13/4
KWAL: application systems supervisor, systems administrator by 12/4
Various jobs at Virgin Atlantic Naiorbi. D/L is 6/4
World Vision - Sudan: internal auditor, ICT specialist (infrastructure), IT specialist (system administration). Apply to recruitmentsdn@wvi.org

Google discovers the NSE

Google finance has began covering the Nairobi Stock Exchange. It’s still in beta so it can only get better. Some information (mostly company managers) and financials are outdated, and it would be nice to see some blog contributions in addition to the news feeds like at Reuters Africa

Job & numbers

Citizen TV: 000’s are the reasons that several media stars have decamped to Citizen TV. For the KTN crew it was about playing one hose against the other to raise the salary stakes before they moved on, but not for as much as they had hoped. For those left at KTN salary caps are now in order on a take it or leave it basis.

KCB: Deputy CEO Martin Oduor Otieno got elevated to lead KCB this month, despite the KCB board erroneously including a clause that CEO candidates should be under 50 years of age which the new MD is over by about a year.

Jobs available
most from the daily papers in the past week

African Development Bank: Research Economist, Senior Research Economist, Financial Management Specialist, Principal Environmentalist, Senior Gender Specialist, Principal Socio-Economist, Senior Statistician. Apply to recruit@afdb.org by 10/4

Barclays: Direct sales agents (ref: DSA07), direct sales team leader (DSTL07) D/L is 30/3

Brand & technologies limited : managing director, finance manager, commercial manager, logistics manager, procurement manager, internal audit manager, hr & admin manager, ICT manager, brand managers (4). Apply through deloitte at esd@deloitte.co.ke by 6/4

Senior financial planning coordinator at Celtel . Apply to hr@ke.celtel.com by 30/3

I & M Bank : Cashiers/Tellers, IS Security Administrator, ICT Management Trainees, Credit Administration Officer (Securities and Documentation), Credit Administration Officer (System Input and Maintenance), Credit Administration Officer (Monitoring and Control),

Young professionals (10) at KIPPRA. Details online and D/L is 20/4
- Also at KIPPRA - research consultants/associates, research assistant, editorial consultants in field of macroeconomics, productive sector, private sector, social sector, infrastructure & economic service. Apply to eoi@kippra.or.ke by 20/4

Kenya Tea Development Authority: brand executive and a web administrator. Apply to recruitement@ktdateas.com by 10/4

Regional information & communication officer at Oxfam and D/L is 4/4

Senior Manager - Financial Systems & Analysis at Safaricom. D/L is 2/4

Management trainees at the Standard D/L is 11/4

world vision : Africa advocacy director, Africa Christian commitments director, and Africa communications director. Details online and D/L is 13/4
Also National Director, Uganda, Programme Director, North Sudan, Programme Director, Somalia. D/L is 20/4

Easter Tourism

The first of two tourism fairs (the other one is held before the Christmas) was held at Sarit center last weekend. It is meant to cater for the Easter holidays and the low tourist season which runs from around April to July.

With many more airlines flying to Mombasa – Kenya Airways (KQ), Air Kenya, EA Safari, Fly 540, Jetlink, there are fewer bundled packages (air fare, and hotel stay)now offered. Still there was 2 nights at Travelers Hotel (half board) in conjunction with Fly 540 priced at 25,256 shillings ($361) for the low season, compared to 30,800 ($440) in other months. Also Leopard Beach resort which has been rather quiet on the marketing front has re-emerged with more affordable fares - a similar 2 night stay/flight package is priced for Fly 540 (26,540), KQ (26,700 i.e. $381) or Air Kenya (26,520)

There are also quite a few packages to Northern and Western Kenya – places like Baringo, Samburu and Saiwa Swamp (22 km from Kitale) in addition to more foreign packages been sold at the fair with destinations in Ethiopia, Egypt, South Africa, Rwanda (to watch mountain gorillas) and Uganda (the new Kampala Serena), joining the usual Zanzibar and Dubai ones. These included honeymoon trips to the Kampala Serena at $420 per couple for 5 nights and another to Johannesburg & Cape Town for $2,400 per couple.

There were also some youth packages such as 2 nights/3 days camping at Masai Mara or Tsavo at 12,000 shillings ($171) p.p. from silver bird and a schools package (aimed at class trips) from Sarova to Shaba, Lion Hill or the Mara. (priced at about 60% discount)

Finally, Kenya Airways have a midweek to Dubai special at $500 for 2 tickets, while Emirates Airline (who were not at the fair) are said to have $160 ticket to Dubai that is used as a seat filler

Related: A report on the November tourism fair

Looking back on Kengen & Total

Total
In October last year, Total Oil held a cocktail party to reassure shareholders after some dismal 9 month results.

Now that the 2006 results have been finalized, here are some other things shareholders were told at the event.
- Company experienced difficulty with upfront payment of taxes and ineffectiveness at the oil refinery in Mombasa
- Total had made a provision of 100 million shillings for an oil marketing case, but that very day the high court had ruled in their favor.
- The Chairman (Mr. Nguer) promised that the results at the end of the year would be much better than the 9 month ones
More comparisons to Kenol: he said that Kenol share price was 115 shillings in April and 109 on that day in October, while total had similarly changed from 44 to 37/38. He also said that while their operations were down 9%, Kenol’s were down 30%. [Today March 2007 – Kenol is 85 and Total 30]
- Commenting on Mobil oil exit and entry of Tamoil (of Libya) to Kenya, Nguer remarked that the sector was stable but that oil marketing was unique in Kenya and some multi –nationals could not understand this.
- On threats by Minister of Finance to fix oil prices, he said he did not see the country going back on its 1994 deregulation of the sector prices

Kengen
The surprise announcement last week that geothermal development company would be hived off from Kengen prompted a look back at the company’s pre-IPO prospectus. And sure enough in the future outlook for the company, the Kengen prospectus does mention the state will set up a geothermal development company to undertake high risk activities such as exploration and drilling. It will be financed by appropriations from parliament and will take over Olkaria from Kengen

Also that:
- Regulator (ERB?) will be empowered to set the price of fossil fuels bought by Kengen i.e. diesel. This is likely to affect independent power producers.
- New rural electrification authority. Any impact on KPLC?
- Kengen to bill KPLC at 2.36 not 1.76 per kWh which has become a hot button issue in this election year

Sugar crisis countdown

Mumias is Kenya’s main sugar company with diversified operations and whose future plans include ethanol production and electricity generation.

However while they believe they are ready to compete in the future, they worry that other companies and the sector will be negatively affected and could collapse after March 2008 when an import restriction expires - thus allowing unlimited amounts of sugar to be imported duty free from other COMESA COMESA countries.

As such they are commissioning a study (pre-proposals to be sent to the company by 5/4) to see what impact this will have on the sector and calling for urgent action.

Issues they are raising:
- Other countries - Brazil, Pakistan, Australia, Mauritius, SA, Zambia etc. protect their sugar sectors though tariff and other non tariff means like subsidies – so why not Kenya?
- Is the sugar imported from COMESA country Egypt - truly Egyptian in origin? Mumias suspects much of it is dumped from Brazil and under-invoiced by the time it reaches Mombasa. Malawi and Swazi sugar is also suspect.
- The sugar sector has not been supported by in terms of tax breaks, subsidies, infrastructure and incentives like other Kenyan agricultural sectors such as coffee, dairy, tea and livestock. Also, when the sector was liberalized/privatized it was not recapitalized as expected leaving companies with debt burden.
- Does Kenya benefit from COMESA more than it loses by supporting the local sugar industry? What is the value of Kenya exports to / imports from other COMESA countries? Are sugar, ceramic, textiles and rice from Egypt truly Egyptian products. What is the value of exports to COMESA by Kenyan owned companies?
- Ascertain Kenya sugar contribution to the economy in terms of taxes, infrastructure and employment.

For Mumias: It’s troubling that you can but rice from Pakistan at Uchumi or Nakumatt is priced cheaper than the local Mwea rice (which I buy). So what will happen with sugar? The March 2008 date has always been a crucial day for any Mumias shareholder to consider and the company will certainly benefit from a continued exemption. Mumias makes a great deal of mileage as the only widely circulated Kenya branded sugar product – with the connotation of buy Kenyan, your taxes at work etc.

Homeless African Banks

Regional African banking institutions seem to be having some trouble with their host nations.

First it was the African Development Bank which is hosted by Tunisia after war broke out in Ivory Coast. A Wall Street Journal story earlier this month highlighted the dilemma posed by US pressure to have this African Bank hosted in an African, i.e. sub-Saharan country, but at the same time not shut the door on a return to Ivory Coast.

Now it's the African Export-Import Bank which is about to be evicted from Egypt. This stems from a long running dispute when Egypt, upset that one of their own was not elected president of the bank, locked out the incoming president and froze their funding of the bank. Bank shareholders met thereafter and resolved that the election of the president was in order and asked that Egypt accept and respect that decision. Now Egypt has decided to sell their shares in the bank - resulting in the members looking for a new headquarters.

Bad driving Roundup

bad driver Index
The other day I was stuck in a meeting and had a chance to observe traffic at the Kenyatta Avenue /I&M Towers intersection - and realized how bad we are at driving. A few minutes later I was down there myself adding to the chaos nosing a car foot-by-foot through until other driver had to yield.

While the most aggressive drivers appear to be matatus, taxis, citi hoppas, we are all to blame as regular motorists because we are equally bad drivers. Driving along the roadside, changing or creating extra lanes, doing u-turns etc.

Matatu and other bus drivers can get reported by sending an SMS to 2333 and once a month the Ministry of Transport will publish all these offences in a full page spread in the newspaper.

But there’s no mechanism for reporting private motorists or consequence for private bad drivers.
I wish the Ministry would extend the program to private motorists – in conjunction with Safaricom or Celtel – and enable motorists, or pedestrians to report bad driving by any driver. The difference is that only motorists who pile up more than 5 or 10 offences a month (reported by different people) get printed in the paper and asked to appear before the traffic court to answer for driving offences. I wonder how many times I’d appear on that list!

But motoring is only an extension of our aggressive/ rude inconsiderate selves that can be manifested anywhere, not just when driving.

Consider these other examples from a supermarket last weekend;
- Our inability to form a queue. Uchumi has a sign clearly indicating where to line up for bread - but which most customers ignore as they crowd the counter and yell out their orders for hot loaves or croissant
- A man with his kids on his way to a birthday party who pushed a full trolley through the 3 items only aisle. When I asked him if he understood the policy of the aisle, he said he was buying only 3 items – chocolate bar, bag of sweets, and balloons - but 10 of each item which unfortunately also had to be rung up separately by the cashier!
- Another day, a lady with her young daughter who paid for her items only to realise that her young daughter had picked out the wrong type of lotion. But instead of dealing with it later, she shoved a 1,000 shilling note at the cashier and dashed back into the supermarket to pick up the correct bottle – leaving five of us in the 3 items express queue also waiting to be served. To add insult to the matter she bumped into an old friend and had a chat for a minute while the rest of us stood and muttered insults under our breath.

Enough about that.

Airlines
Just about 20 months ago we marvelled at Kenya Airways whose share price had just shot up into the 60's - before it went on to hit 140 and settle around 120 shillings a share. At the same time Richard Branson was setting up a Virgin partnership in Nigeria and the first scheduled airline services were resuming to the Sudan

Today, Kenya Airways share price is back in the 60's, Virgin Atlantic's boss is here to firm up his launch plans for the Virgin Airline and there seems to be a new airline to the Sudan every month.

Francis Thuo
Today, March 21, marks the deadline for investors and creditors of Francis Thuo Stockbrokers to have filed their claims with the statutory manager.

Busy paper pushers
There are people employed at organizations whose job is to align their organizations to the national goals of the day. Like chameleons, they alter their corporate objectives, mission, and policies to ensure they are aligned to ensure 10% economic growth, millennium development goals(MDGs), zero based budgeting, and now Visions 2030 etc. Also in a touch of electioneering they have been asked to mention what constituency any/all their operations are - which will no doubt end up in a little booklet that will be dished out by November.

More media
Amid the changes at KTN comes a new television station to Kenya with a twist: first to broadcast vernecular language

Finally
driving horror tale A bank manager parked his luxury car on the street during the daytime and came back to collect it at about 8 p.m. He entered and drove towards home along well-lit streets till near Westland's when he noticed that he couldn't see the road very well. He parked at a petrol station and got out - only to find that his car had no headlights. They had all been removed by street boys back in town, and he had blissfully driven this far courtesy of Adopt-a-light streetlights.

Drummond Investment Bank

Yes, the beleaguered stockbroker Francis Drummond is now Drummond Investment Bank as per the latest licensee list from the equally occupied Capital Markets Authority.

Other Notes
- Zimele has two new unit trusts – a balanced and a money market fund
- Suspended Francis Thuo is now missing from the list of stockbrokers, but so is Faida Securities. Is that an omission?
- Uchumi advisers Royal – who later became Amana, are missing as are B A fin. Mgmt and Interglobal who have officially been deregistered. Meanwhile Inter Alliance International are new investment adviser
- Equity Bank now joins the list of authorized depositories

Safaricom Valuation?
The government has valued the 9% of Safaricom shares pledged to banks who advanced a bridging finance loan to restructure Telkom Kenya at 5.835 billion - placing the whole company’s valuation at about 64.83 billion shillings ($926) million and second to EABL at about $1.4 billion)

Edit: Allowing for banks discounting the shares at 60 - 70% of nominal value, puts the value of the company at between 92 and 108 billion shillings.

Giving banks a legal hand

The judiciary has been the bane of banks, taking forever to get things cleared. You can apply for a case against a debtor today and be told the next hearing date available is in 2008.

Smething is very wrong when a case can’t be heard for almost ten months. There’s enough blame to go round – complex cases heard using archaic processes, too few judges, judges who take too long to clear cases, lazy/crafty lawyers who seek postponement for any reason to keep cases going on forever etc.

The Chief Justice tried to give a helping hand in his gazette notice to stop one delaying avenues where matters relating to a case are presented in different courtrooms around the country.

The most visible case has been the ongoing Charterhouse Bank saga which has been in court houses in Nairobi, Malindi and Eldoret leading to conflicting legal positions.

jobs

from the daily papers last week
- Accountant at Bakri international (oil company). Apply to bakri@accesskenya.co.ke by 25/3
- Senior associate at Creative Associates International. Apply to recruitment@caii.com by 23/3
Ernst & Young: tax trainees and an accountant. Apply to Eyrecruitment@ke.ey.com by 30/3
- Huawei: transmission engineer, wireless engineer, and intelligent network engineer. Apply to kenya@huawei.com by 30/3
- Communications specialist at ILRI. Apply to recruit-ilri@cgiar.org b 30/3
- Property manager at international house limited. Apply to jobs@ihlkenya.com by 26/3
- KPMG: audit manager (AM-07), senior internal auditor & internal auditors (IAS-07), tax manager (TM-07) and tax consultants (TC-07). Apply to esd@kpmg.co.ke by 30/3
- Cluster manager at millennium villages. Millennium Promise is a partnership of the Earth Institute (Columbia University) and the World Agro forestry center. Apply to j.morabu@cgiar.org by 30/3
- National Oil Corp of Kenya: depot accountants (Nakuru & Eldoret), and a credit controller. Apply to hr@nockenya.co.ke by 29/3
- National coordinator - African peer review mechanism at NEPAD Kenya secretariat. Apply to jobs.ke@undp.org by 23/3
- Business development manager at Savings & Loan (KCB subsidiary).
- Financial management specialist at the World Bank. Kenya. Details and apply online by 30/3. Also financial management consultants (6 month and 12 month) – D/L is 11/4
- World Vision>: ICT manager at world vision, Manager - KUTER initiative, and (RMB/IMCI) program officer. Apply to recruit_kenya@wvi.org by 30/3

Money Transfer within Kenya - Part II

Part I has come to pass with Safaricom’s new M-Pesa service enabling money transfer via cell phone.

Mzansi Kenya: The new technology does not pose a threat to banks as it operates outside banking circles. What banks should look out for is a populist attempt introduce mzansi style banking as they continue to report super profits year after year which are unfairly attributed to excessive fees they levy on their customers.

Visa, watch out: The next group to watch out for what's happening at Safaricom should be Visa and other credit card manufactures in Africa. Cell phone airtime is virtual money - which is what debit and credit cards are - enabling customers and merchants to exchange virtual payments settled days later - at a substantial fee to both parties.

With cell phones this is already happening but it's just not formalized. The Option - Safaricom's free magazine publication has a letter to the editor this month from Joe Nickson of Kerugoya (central Kenya) who paid his fare in a matatu (bus) by transferring 50 shillings airtime to the conductor's phone and he received 30 shillings actual cash as change.

Airtime offers many more possibilities - 7 million cell phone (including more post-paid cell phone customers) vs. 100, 000 credit card users in Africa. Alongside his credit card terminal, a merchant can have a terminal with a dedicated cell phone line to receive virtual payments of airtime from safaricom users making small purchases. At the end of the day, he'll be able to check his virtual balance - and either re-sell the airtime to customers or use it to purchase other goods.

Another advantage of cell phone payments is they require no background checks or credit history.

Could Safaricom go to a higher level and enable online payments to enable their subscribers to buy over the web and pay by transfering payments to a website like Mamamikes or is that already happening?

Nation Business Daily

The Nation Media Group started publishing the new business daily on Wednesday March 7.

It was first mentioned at the Nation AGM in May 2006 and it hits the streets just three months after a new look Nation was published on December 1.

I hope they consulted their readers like the Wall Street Journal did before they also made changes last year. The WSJ is one of the few to increase subscribers (10%) at a time when most newspapers and magazines are experiencing declines.

Newspaper affordability
Three days out and I am one of the few who has bought all issues so far at 50 shillings ($0.70) each. I don't expect to be a long-term customer since I can read most of the stories I see online at their site or elsewhere (feeds of WSJ online). But if one is not net savvy, the stories are new and different. However I expect that it's only a matter of time before the stories also become subscriber only like the rest of Nation magazines

I have no loyalty to papers to buy, two on Sunday and either Nation or Standard on any other day depending on which is more appealing (preferably less party politics). Like many (cheap) Kenyans I buy one and get a free newspaper i.e. in exchange for buying a paper, the vendor allows me flip through the Nation or Standard (which are sold for 35/= or $0.50 on week days) before I decide which one to buy. The arrival of the business daily shakes up my vendor's math - and he's taking a few days to judge the demand /sort out his orders (he sells 50 Nation and 20 Standard) to motorists as he jogs round traffic jams. He doesn't understand why the Business Daily was launched, and though he has sold out his few copies, he grumbles that it will reduce his sales of the Nation (which is twice the size but costs 30% less than the B.Daily)

business without politics?
Is there enough business news to put out a daily newspaper? Yes there is... we all say we are tired of the media obsessing with politics and politicians. But the Nation already has about half its papers with comprehensive business magazines (Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday- and the East African on Monday). The Standard has also has a business magazine on Monday & Tuesday, (stopped publishing an Executives magazine on Wednesday) as well as a focus on the transportation industry on Thursday. Also the Kenya Times has comprehensive business writing each week day and it the only newspaper still has all its business stories online free.

Still when you look at the papers the business daily is emulating - Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, or even the economist, they all have comprehensive political coverage because you can't separate politics from the world economy. E.g. you can't talk about Airbus problems and future without mentioning the interests/wishes of the French government and also understand what the presidential candidates in France have said and in the same way you can't talk about the issues at KPLC, Kengen, and EAPC without understanding their status as parastatals that are influenced by the politics of government.

tweaking
Some things I'd like to see if asked
- More risk/breaking stories. NTV reporter Robert Nagila has spent a few months doing an expose on dubious procurement contract at a cement company that have been the lead story on NTV news at 9 p.m. several times. But the Daily Nation has not published these findings comprehensively (maybe fear of lawsuits) even as management of the company have paid for rebuttal statements to run in the Nation. The WSJ goal of having 80% exclusive content shoul be aimed for.
- Some signature writers - like the East African has regular columnists with interesting observation and opinions. who also writes for nation, standard has battery who normally write on politics.
- Give an MD a column each week to write about business, economy, investments etc. anything excepttheir company or industry. This should not be an interview and encourage them to make it a personal piece, not a PR team effort
- Index of people names in addition that of companies on page 2.
- Cartoon like the Boondocks, crosswords, advertisements
- More contributor content; this is not easy to manage but newspapers should not wish away their readers contributions. Newspapers often make reference to reports or features and liberally borrow material that appear in blogs or "Kenyan websites" as a by the way without mentioning what they are. e.g. interest rate or stockbroker woe tales.

Future Outlook
The Business Daily, priced at 50 shillings should be a test balloon of the market. Nation executives have often stated that they wish to increase the price of the paper to offset increased production costs. That sometime in 2005/06 both nation and standard increased the price of their Saturday paper from 35 to 40 on the same day was not a coincidence.

By combining both the Business Daily (as Section B of the Daily Nation) they can go ahead and raise the price of daily paper to 50 or 55 shillings and still not lose readers to the competition.

News

marshals: With no big pickup, SUV, or affordable small cars from Peugeot to sell, the company is cutting back - they have moved from their Sarit center showroom as well as marshals house site (used to be showroom, and workshop) on harambee avenue which has now been advertised for rent now its owner - the central bank staff pension fund who also have put up a new office block opp. Yaya center in Kilimani

billionaire's hotel: Flavio Briatore, the Renault F1 team boss will open a luxury beach resort in Malindi later this year.

soccer dream alive: breathing a sigh of relief at the lifting of the FIFA ban on Kenya will be UAP Insurance and its policy holders who have invested in world cup savings plan - but who may had had a difficult time obtaining match tickets as FIFA would not have allocated Kenya a quota to sell.

go zero: Safaricom has often been asked about why it hoards your 10 shillings (phone balance never went below 10 shillings) but they have now removed that floor and subscribers can now talk/SMS their way down to 1 shilling.

new airline Virgin Atlantic starts flights to Kenya on June 1 and the airline is seeking airline call center & ticketing agents, call center/ticketing supervisor, turnaround coordinators, area sales executives and airport duty managers to apply online for jobs by 18/3

other opportunities

Bidco: team leaders (finance & accounts) accountants (Jinja) , cost accountant head communications & PR, marketing officers, head(s) export sales & distribution, regional head(s) sales & distribution, territory sales supervisors, area - sales in charge, head - logistics, head - purchase, engineers, graduate trainee engineers, ICT systems analysts and others. Apply to careers1@bidco-oil.com by 19/3

Equity Bank: relationship managers, customer service representatives. Apply to jobs@ebsafrica.co.ke by 23/3

Emirates airlines cabin crew. Apply online by 1/4

Erastus & Co CPA: audit associates (2), auditor seniors (2) tax & service supervisor. Apply to erastus@nbnet.co.ke by 20/3

regional sales representatives at Jamii. D/L is 20/3

Market research & planning manager at KCB. apply to Divisional director HR 48400-00100 by 19/3

managing director at Kenya film corporation apply through manpower & associates by 23 /3

media edge: client service executives, editor, and creative graphic designers. Apply to info@mediaedgeint.com by 14/3

grants officer at save the children. apply to vacancies@scuk.or.ke by 21/3

branch manager at Southern credit bank. apply to hr@southerncredit.co.ke by 21/3

world bank Somalia community driven recovery /& development t (CDR/CDD) project: civil engineering officer, monitoring & evaluation officer, and coordinator CDR/CDD project. Apply online by 21/3

grants accountant at world vision south Sudan. apply to recruitsdn@wvi.org by 19/3

scholarships: Chinese / Kenya government scholarships - undergraduate (12), post graduate (10) - full scholarships (inclusive of air travel).. D/L is 15/3 to the PS Ministry of Education

media awards. Marekebisho awards from GJLOS - open only to journalists why? who work for media houses. Three awards each for print (local, regional or national newspaper) and electronic (local, national, regional TV/radio) journalists for work they publish between January 1 and May 31 2007. D/L is 31/5

10 shilling shares

The recent surge of share splits was unjustified based on the overall trading history of the companies. So it’s only a matter of time before some of these shares dip to their pre-split / hype prices. Any share that was trading for less than 100 shillings in the last 18 months is a candidate for correction – to the below 10 shillings mark and that includes CMC, ICDCI, and Sasini.

IPO’s
Now that a few IPO’s have passed, but not their euphoria, it is apparent that investment advisors of future IPO's will have to rework their calculations to satisfy institutional and seasoned retail investors. While government divestment offers will be geared to the mwananchi, smaller private companies will have to ask themselves if by offering IPO shares at about 10/= each, they want to be like Eveready or Scangroup and end up with up with 100,000 shareholders who own 100 – 200 shares each.

Rising shareholder costs
- Kengen told us their 2006 annaul general meeting (AGM) - after the IPO would 80 million shillings and another post IPO company Firestone will have their AGM in Nakuru on March 22 (where fewer shareholders can attend).
- With over 175,000 new shareholders, the cost to Eveready of even inviting all their new owners to the AGM is quite prohibitive - mailing out accounts & AGM notices would cost about 4 million shillings ($63,500) [i.e. 175,000 letters X 25 shillings postage per letter]. So Firestone shareholders will also be asked to approve a change in company articles to allow such notices to be sent by e-mail or fax.
- The same postage costs will apply when Eveready mail out their dividend cheques. Since most shareholders have the minimum 100 shares, they will receive payment cheques of Kshs 60. which is hardly justified when you factor in bank & postage charges
- Also to cut costs, the company has sent out slimmed down accounts that are about the size of the president's speech on Jamhuri day.
- On a positive note, Kengen have made an arrangement with (their bankers) KCB so that shareholders can cash their Kengen dividend cheques at any KCB branch at no cost.

Alternative investments
KTN had a story on Friday about the Central Bank (CBK) crackdown on pyramid schemes - and it was followed by a poll on whether they should be banned. The result was 16% YES, 84% NO (i.e. they should not be banned.) Though unscientific, you sense from the poll that these schemes have become lifelines/shortcuts to riches for a diverse variety of Kenyans.

In fact many of these schemes have been shut down at the urging of commercial banks – who have had to deal with swelling crowds in their banking halls – either depositing or receiving cash in the merry go rounds. Some of these investors blame jealousy from banks (who want to hold their money and give out as loans) and the Nairobi stock exchange for putting pressure on the CBK to act (since they have been selling shares to re-invest in these quick cash back avenues with guaranteed returns.

Improved opportunities for graduates

Two years ago I placed small advertisement in the newspaper to fill a secretarial vacancy. Twice after that, the job holders found better jobs, so I had to do it again - a year ago, and also this February. Within a week of each advert, almost twenty applications were received.

Two years ago, almost all applicants were university graduates; for the second ad, about 2/3 who responded were graduates and this time - of the 20 applicants received in the first week, only half were university graduates. Does this mean that there are better opportunities for graduates? Or they feel better about their prospects that they won't accept an entry-level job these days. Good times and more opportunities I hope for them

The results of this were a quick experiment. But a caution here; if you apply to a job at high profile company, it may take up to two months (or never) to be called in for an interview or sent a regret e-mail.

jobs
from the daily papers

African development bank (ADB) (Nairobi): Macroeconomist, agriculture expert, infrastructure specialist, procurement assistant, disbursement assistant, IT & telecommunications assistant, administrative & financial assistant. Apply to the resident representative, Kenya country office 4861-00200 Nairobi

Alliance for a green revolution in Africa (AGRA) [ supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates and Rockefeller foundations]: - which will be headquartered in Nairobi, and program operations will be implemented by a supporting organization - program for a green revolution Africa (ProGRA) - also to be based in Nairobi
Executive director, evaluation & learning officer, program officer(for education & training for crop improvement), director for strategy & learning, program officer (for crop genetic improvement & farmer variety adoption), program officer for (agro-dealer development) [2 positions], policy officer, communications officer, program officer (financing seed production systems) apply through KPMG Kenya at agra@kpmg.co.ke by 23/3

Software developers at credit reference bureau Africa (CRB Africa) . Apply online by 31/3

Senior program officer Kenya at DFID. Apply through adept systems recruit@adeptsystems.co.ke by 14/3

Kenya Anti Corruption Commission: Accountant, forensic investigator III (tax expert), forensic investigator III (audit expert). Apply to the director 61130-00200 by 16/3
Related - the Kenya Revenue Authority is hiring detector dog instructors and detector dog handlers. D/L is 23/3

Nairobi Java House limited: general manager, coffee division manager, and HR manager. Apply to hr@nairobijavahouse.com by 14/3

Safaricom: Simu Ya Jamii Area Manager, Simu Ya Jamii Administrator, Network Monitoring Centre (Nmc) Shift Technician, Senior Tax Accountant, Principal ERP Developer, Principal Business Analyst, Data Services Planning Technician, NMC SSS Senior Engineer-OM Senior CRM System Developer. Apply online

Serena hotels: marketing manager, e-Commerce Manager, sales executive, IS Manager (Kigali) and sous chefs. Apply though Hawkins associates - hawkins.asssociates@khigroup.com by 14/3

other bits of news

advertising Capital FM (98.4) are for the second year running their Image plus promotion that offers medium size companies 120 30 second radio advertisements over the course of one year for about 1.4 million shillings – inclusive of production costs.

affirmative action: In public procurement & disposal, preference will be given to local contractors & suppliers exclusively for goods/supply contracts of less than 50 million shillings ($710,000)shillings and Kshs. 200 million ($2.85 million) for works procurement.
- Bidders will also enjoy a margin of preference of 15% if supplies used are sourced in Kenya
- Bidders will also enjoy a margin of preference of 6% where local shareholding is less than 20% and 5% for shareholding between 20% and 50%

aviation tourism revival continues with airline licenses renewed for air Italy, Neos, Livingston, (Italy - Mombasa / Zanzibar), Fischer (Poland - Mombasa), Malav (Hungary - Mombasa), and Edelweiss (Switzerland - Mombasa)

coffee: An expo will be held on March 8th at Serena - facilitated by the export promotion council

housing: the government will put up 400 mixed housing units in Mlolongo - Athi river Kenya slum upgrading network in conjunction with UN Habitat (Mavoko for middle and low income housing)

investor seminar: Strathmore University – SIFE Team will hold an investment conference dubbed Smart NSE Investments 2007 on Saturday, 3rd March 2007 from 8:30am – 4pm at the university auditorium. Charges are KSh.100 (Exclusive of Lunch)

media training: The 5th Eastern Africa Media Training conducted the Inter Region Economic Network (IREN) will take place in Nairobi between March 14 - 16

security: serious stuff on the Somalia Coast where another ship (MV Rozen) was hijacked by pirates this week
- Kenya to buy patrol boats to secure the waters of Kenya and the port of Mombasa
- (kizingiti, siyu, mokowe, kiwayu) patrol bases in Lamu have been upgraded to be police stations

Savings accounts that save

New changes to banking act forbid banks' from imposing charges on savings account holders as long as they maintain the minimum balance. This will promote a culture of savings, which is important even as real savings rates are negative.

(Here's a snapshot (PDF) of some of these charges from 2 years ago

This week, I closed a savings account because, when I got my (half-yearly) statement, I realized that they had been charging me 200 shillings ($2.9) a month. Even as I opened a different savings account within the same bank, the account rep. said, despite my protests, that the new savings account would attract a 25-shilling per month fee. I also got dinged 300 shillings for transferring the account.

No bank has yet come out and declared how they would abide by the new rules, but it takes long to right a ship and it will probably take a few months to rework their savings products with new brochures, IT codes & account parameters.

Of the last few years savings accounts have become hybrid account that have ATM cards, visa cards, electronic banking & SMS access etc. - all of which banks could extract a fee for the extra services to account holders.

To comply with the changes, banks are likely to come out with plain, no frills savings accounts. They will adjust the minimum fee appropriately but have no more ATM cards or extras - just money sitting in the bank earning intrest, and not reduced by bank charges.

Technological graveyard

I'm looking to replace my current laptop which still works okay but looks to be an outdated dinosaur (Windows 98, Office 2000, 2 GB hard drive, 48 MB RAM, Intel-MMX, floppy disk and CD-ROM - which I used primarily for MS Encarta and MS Flight when I bought the laptop, has USB ports – but can’t read flash disks)

Now 6 years later, I am looking at much improved specs machine (40 GB 512MB DVDrw, 1.7GHz, no software). It's not state of the art, but that would be too expensive and computers have a short technological half-life.

I was thinking of all the gadgets I have used and discarded in my lifetime - communications (answering machines, pagers, cordless phones, car phones, modems), music (LP's, real player, cassettes, mini discs), entertainment (VHS, gold disks, camcorders, hand-held video games, still camera) etc.

Who knows which of the items we use today - laptops, DVD's, satellite dishes,- will be around in 6 years time. E.g. is dvb-h the future for TV's? - only time will tell.

New newspaper

A newspaper is the latest project by the team behind hit radio stations Kiss FM and and Classic 105.2.

Newspapers in Kenya are still doing ok, while in the developed world they are in a bit of a struggle and it has been predicted that newspapers in the developed world may cease publication around the year 2040.

The last new non-tabloid launched was the weekly Leader from Royal Media in 2005.

The new newspaper is currently hiring writers through advertisements on KISS FM.

Track your spending

I have Quicken on my PC but I have been on the look out for a web based free tool to track my expenses. I came across this timely post from lifehacker from which I discovered buxfer and clearcheckbook.

Both sites meet my expectations and are great tools for creating and tracking budgets & spending, though so far I prefer clearcheckbook because it is quite similar to quicken, while buxfer is more appropriate for group spending and shared resource tracking.

beauty of 2.0: Both sites added Kenya shillings within 12 hours of my emailing them this request and I am now able to see where most of my weekly money goes.

Another list of budgeting and financial resources.

Local Opportunities

Jobs

from the daily papers this week

Investment officer at Agence française de développement (AFD). Apply through PWC at ess.ke@ke.pwc.com by 9/3 (Ref ESS 409)

Amity software IT professional (.net, SAP, java, oracle DBA, data warehouse, QA) to work in USA. Apply online by 18/2

Financial advisors / financial planning manger at British American Asset Managers. Apply to BAAMHR@baam.co.ke by 28/2

Assistant manager sales & marketing at the carnivore. Apply to carnivore@carnivore.co.ke by 22/2

Associates at Deloitte consulting: (must have 10 years consulting and work experience). Apply to associates@deloitte.co.ke by 5/3

Regional communications officer at IUCN. Apply to earo@iucn.org by 7/3

Kencall: senior account managers, trainee managers, human resource manager, experienced recruiter, telesales representatives, customer care tele agents, and (IT) project coordinators. Apply online.

Kenya Airways: product & in-flight services manager, marketing services & advertising manager, catering & duty free manager, in flight product executive, corporate branding executive, corporate card executive, flying blue service centre manager, CRM product & service manager, customer care manager, corporate communications manager. Apply to the group HRD 19002 Nairobi by 27/2

- CRM & E-commerce data analyst, cargo capacity & revenue executive, systems administrator, project coordinator (civil engineer). Apply to the group HRD 19002 Nairobi by 2/23

Kenya wine agencies limited: Tax accountant, Internal audit assistant. Apply to HRM 40550-00100 by 28/2

lake Victoria regional authorities cooperation: information & communications officer, project assistant. Apply to secretarygeneral@lvrlac.net by 24/2

Business development & marketing specialist at Land O’Lakes. apply to lolkenya@landolakes by 23/2

chief financial officer at Must garment corporation. Apply to jobs.CFO@MustGarment.com

Property Manager at Safaricom. D/L 23/2

Simba colt motors: financial controller, senior accountant, internal auditor. Apply to jobs@simbacolt.com by 2/3

Suntra investment bank: Managers – investment banking, research & development manager. Apply through manpower associates p o box 50736-00200 Nairobi by 26/2

Sales professional at UAP insurance for Uganda Sudan and Kenya. Apply to uapinsurance@uapkenya.com

Unicef: Writers/editors on children’s issues, photographers, artist & illustrators on children’s issues. Apply to kenyahrvacancies@unicef.org by 9/3

Are unit trusts for you?

There was a story in the story in the Standard about unit trusts this week.

At the beginning of the year, I considered stepping away from the NSE, cashing in my gains and putting the money in a unit trust. But a conversation with a custody manager put me off this path. He said that with the management fees at unit trusts were too high for individuals, implying that individual investors not see significant gains unless the trust had exceptional returns.

Certainly any investor familiar with the myriad Kenyan and African investment blogs and sites such as Cold Tusker, First Global Select, Kenya Capital Investments, Mwasjad, Nairobist, Outfoxed, Pesa Tu, Riba Capital, Stockskenya, Odeglenyang, Investing In Africa, Kenyan Entrepreneur, Hisagal, Gathinga – could be more informed as any unit trust investor.

Unit trusts

Approved Collective Investment Schemes in Kenya are:

1. African Alliance Kenya Unit Trust Scheme: Kenya Shilling Fund, Kenya Fixed Income Fund, Kenya Managed Fund
2. Old Mutual Unit Trust Scheme : Equity Fund, Money Market Fund, Balanced Fund
3. British American Unit Trust Scheme : Money Market Fund, Income Fund, Balanced Fund, Managed Retirement Fund, Equity Fund
4. Stanbic Unit Trust Scheme: Money Market Fund, Flexible Income Fund, Managed Prudential Fund
5. Commercial Bank of Africa Unit Trust Scheme: Money Market Fund, Equity Fund

Death of a Stockbroker Part II

See Rogue broker alert and Death Part I

Francis Thuo (FT) stockbrokers have been suspended from the NSE for 14 days. Once this story is over, succession issues are likely to be blamed since the firm’s leader and visionary chairman passed away last year.

need more info: This month the Nairobi Stock Exchange launched a new site that is much improved with more news and features, but their sister regulators' CMA site appears not to have been updated in a year.

The FT story is one which the CMA should be on the forefront reassuring investors. We have seen reports on TV several times over the last year that insider and suspicious deals would be investigated, but no reports have been released or repercussions seen.

For shareholders, the process of transfering share accounts to other brokers was supposed to be seamless and shares should be safe if verified using CDS statements. It appears some FT clients were aware of FT liquidity problems and opted not to sell shares through the firm (and be issued with cheques which would bounce).

During the 14 day suspension, a deal is likely to be worked out to salvage the company, though after getting such a bad rep, customers are not likely to sign up unless FT relaunches under a new name, brand and service oreintation. One other brokerage was up for sale last year, but it would not attract any investors since its reputation was so poor.

Battle for Africa Online

Telkom (South Africa) looks to emerge the winner in the battle for Africa Online after the African Lakes board (parent company) have accepted Telkom (SA)’s bid of £9.72 million (£25 per share) beating out Africa Telecoms Company (ATC) [which comprised Wananchi Online, Schneider Media and East Africa Capital Partners] who had offered £5.04 million (£18.50 per share)

While ATC had commited to move the company headquarters to Naiorbi, Telkom have not indicated their intentions for Kenya, as the Ethiopian and Malawian operations will be disposed of.

Meanwhile ATC will go ahead with its plans for laying out consumer broadband infrastructure to Kenya and other pan-African markets.

Motoring moment

Chrysler 300 officially here


One prediction (or wishful thinking) from a year ago has come true and there was a Chrysler 300 sitting in the DT Dobie showroom on Sunday. The car which has won numerous awards, and featured in every other rap video since it was introduced, can now be bought by Kenyan motorists (w/right hand drive steering) at a price of 5 – 6 million shillings ($85,000 after our prohibitive taxes are added up) [Chrysler site prices them at $25 to $36,000]

Unfortunately it shares the DT Dobie showroom with its corporate sister – the world beating Mercedes Benz E-class which is just about every other Kenyan’s dream car. Also, as with most American cars, the engine size does not make its fuel consumption pocket friendly at our petrol prices (~$4.3/gallon) even though Chrysler states that the 300’s consumption is better than that of a Subaru Legacy GT (common on Kenyan roads).

Is coolant necessary?
Over the weekend I had to top up a car radiator and found myself having to choose between water and coolant. In my experience coolant (aka anti freeze) is designed primarily for winter weather driving where water (in sub-zero temperatures) will freeze and damage engine systems.

Yet, most cars are imported to Kenya from winter countries (arriving with coolant already in the radiator system) - and while Kenyan drivers have always used water in in their car engines (petrol & diesel), many vehicle owners insist on using coolant since that is what the car is accustomed to.

But is it really necessary? Coolant is sold at petrol stations at prices ranging from 250 shilling to 500 shillings ($7). This is as much as what many drivers pay for fuel at the station. I have always used water, and while have occasionally bought coolant, I have never noticed any difference.

In searching the web, the best answer I could find, implied some benefit to some cars from using coolant instead of water.

Many cars overheat because dirty water is poured in to the radiator (usualy by petrol stations attendant). If car owners were careful about ensuring that onlu clean water is used, they can save some money instead of buying unnecessary coolant.

bullet proof cars
There was a story in the Sunday Nation about a company (Radar Danminar) that would soon be selling bullet-proof Toyota land cruisers for 19 million shillings ($270,000) . Alternately they could make your current car bulletproof in a few weeks time for 10 million shillings.

The article rightly points out armored cars are not the answer/will not prevent car jacking of motorists as their cost is too high and you can only arm huge, powerful cars like Land cruisers, Mercs, or BMW’s, and not smaller 1600cc Toyotas that most Kenyans drive.

Bleak beef futures

Pass any restaurant today and everyone is ordering all variants of chicken or fish on the menu and skipping any thing that contains beef. Drive past many of the popular nyama choma (roast meat) eating places and there are more staff than customers and very few vehicles parked outside. Bulls that used to fetch 20,000 shillings ($285) at weekly auctions can now be bought for as little as 5,000 shillings. And the latest marketing gimmick is that you’ll get a free ¼ kilo if you buy a kilo of meat at some butcheries.

The cause of all this is rift valley fever, a mysetrious deadly disease, that has spread slowly from the remote parts of North Eastern Kenya but has now reached Nairobi and other urban areas despite several measures taken to combat it.

February 8 Pot Pourri

bounced bond: Celtel intends to retire its 4.5 million bond notes in February 2007. They were due to mature in 2009

standard goes main: The standard group moves to the main investor segment of the NSE from the alternative counter on February 13.

coast gets university: Kenyatta University will open a new campus in Mombasa

port expansion: Kenya ports authority will create 3 new container berths (terminals) by dredging port Reitz and reclaiming 100 hectares in west kipevu

Foreign investors take punches
- Even as Woodside oil packs up their equipment to return to Australia, the National oil corporation of Kenya has issued a new international tender for non- exclusive surveys offshore in Lamu

- Tiomin has stopped the Kwale sands project (citing delays and cost overruns) after the project lender had withdrawn a $15m facility.

Jobs

Regional managers (2) for East and West Africa (Ref: DN001) at African management services company (AMSCO) . Apply to recruitment@amscobv.com

Coffee development fund
credit & commercial manager, finance manager. Apply by 23/2 to the managing trustee 52714-00200 Nairobi

FSD Kenya
- Agriculture finance specialist (16/3)
- Challenger fund manager (28/2)
Apply to lydiah@fsdkenya.org

Relationship manager Mombasa at Housing Finance. Apply to human.resources@housing.co.ke

Kenya Airways
- Area manager Eastern Africa
- Head of in-flight services & standards
Apply to the Group HRD 19002 Nairobi by 16/2

Human resources manager at KPMG. Apply to esd@kpmg.co.ke by 9/3

Audit seniors at Manohar Lall & Rai . Apply to info@mlnr.net by 15/2

Public relations manager at the Nairobi stock exchange (NSE) . Apply through Deloitte at esd@deloitte.co.ke by 21/2

PKF: audit managers (PKF/AM/100) audit supervisors (PKF/AS1/101) audit seniors (PKF/AS2/102). Apply to pkfnbi@ke.pkfea.com by 23/2

Urban inflation index

Litre of fuel 74.29 shillings (+1.8%)
a year ago: 72.99

Maize meal (2 kg. unga) 50 shillings (-7.4%)
a year ago: 54

Sugar (2 kg. Mumias pack) 150 shillings (+30%)
a year ago: 115

Tusker beer: 100 shillings at local (-9%)
a year ago: 110

Safaricom promotion: Saasa - with 8 shillings per minute calls during off peak hours
a year ago: bamba 50 – low denomination airtime top up card costing 50 shillings

US Dollar exchange rate: 69.97 shillings (-2.4%)
a year ago: 71.69

CDS expands

The Government will implement a scriptless securities settlement and central depository system for private listed securities and government debt instruments through the FLSTAP program.

Bank shares in '06

Share performance of financial institutions listed at the Nairobi Stock Exchange in 2006.

Share prices as at: Dec 05 Dec 06 Change
Barclays Bank 263 77 (385) 46%
C.F.C Bank 75 89 19%
Diamond Trust 32.25 72.5 125%
Equity (listed in August '06) 70 139 99%
Housing Finance 13.95 48 244%
I.C.D.C Investments 72.5 325 348%
Jubilee Insurance ]83 323 289%
Kenya Commercial 113 241 113%
National Bank 28.75 58 102%
NIC Bank 51 102 100%
Pan Africa Insurance 40 91.5 129%
Standard Chartered 139 205 47%

Other share activity
- Barclays had a 5-for-1 share split and a bonus issue of 1 for 3 and still paid the highest dividend of about 14 sh. per share in 2006
- Standard Chartered paid a 7.5 sh per share dividend
- Jubilee paid 4.25 sh dividend
- KCB paid a much improved dividend of 4 sh per share
- NIC paid a 2.5 sh dividend
- Equity joined the NSE as the entire shareholding was listed in August 2006 at 70 shillings per share after earlier paying a dividend of 2 sh per share.
- ICDCI shares rocketed up into the stratosphere as the company announced a 10 for 1 share split
- Pan Africa Insurance paid a 1.2 sh dividend
- CFC paid a dividend of 0.84sh per share
- Diamond Trust paid a 0.7sh dividend
- National Bank and Housing Finance had improved earnings but no dividend.

Opportunities – February 3

from the daily papers this week

jobs

Principal consultant - corporate financial services at Deloitte Tanzania. Apply to dloitte@deloitte.co.tz by 16/3

East African Breweries: marketing manager (MM/MD/02.07), brand manager (BM/MD/02.06). apply to hr.recruitment@eabl.com by 14/2

East African Cables: marketing manager (MM/07), group procurement & logistics manager (GPLM/07) and other engineering positions. Apply to hr@eacables.com by 10/2

Family Finance: Apply online for company secretary, works officer, and executive secretary by 16/2

Hilton Hotel: Managers (operations, credit, Food & Beverage, Sales Account), Internal Auditor, Trainees (front office, F&B). send one page CV to nbohitwhrd@hilton.com

Government of Kenya: Account managers (210 positions) at the Constituency Development Fund national management committee secretariat to be based at constituency level. Applicants must be degree holders with accounting or project management experience, good computer skills, and be under 45 years of age. Those selected will undergo 3-month probation after which they will be awarded 3-year contracts. Apply to cdf@wananchi.com by 28/2

IFC (modern lighting program): senior program manager (Kenya or Ghana), program manager Kenya. details online D/L is 24/2

Head of forensics (HF/32/07) at KCB. Apply through KPMG at esd@kpmg.co.ke by 16/2

Simba technology limited: functional consultant - oracle e business suite (3
positions), functional consultants Orion enterprise/advantage (3), functional consultants - banking (2), functional consultants - insurance (3). Apply to jobs@simbanet.co.ke by 10/2 ( REF: 150106)

UNDP Kenya election assistance program: communications & education specialist, finance officer, procurement officer, and administrative associate. Apply to jobs.ke@undp.org by 7/2

scholarships
Aga Khan Foundation: for development -related overseas postgraduate apply by
(50% grant 50% loan payable 5 years after completion that covers tuition & living expenses only) . D/L for applications to the Nairobi office is 15/3

Ford foundation: Details at international fellowship program and D/L is 9/3

Banking law amended in 2007

The banking amendment act (2006) and finance act (2006) were gazetted in January 2007. Some changes that will affect the banking system in a busy year, in addition to possible merger activity, include;

- Ban on bank charges within savings accounts. In fact banks must pay interest as long as the account minimums are maintained
- Section 44A (in duplum rule) – banks can only recover principal amount lent, interest to an amount not exceeding principal, and recovery expenses from bad debts. (Fortunately for banks this will not be applied retroactively)
- CBK gets a deputy governor appointed by the president
- CBK also gets to vet the professional and moral suitability of owners (of more than 5%), directors, and senior managers of banks
- All banks must get permission from the finance minister to open branches or establish subsidiaries outside Kenya
- Banks are allowed to invest in real estate. They can also hold land for as long as it takes to realize/recover debt
- Allows sharing of non performing assets information with the Central bank, others banks and credit reference bureaus

Report & Reduce Corruption

The latest quarterly report from the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) report was buried under a ton of criticism owing to the fact that it was perceived to continue the Anglo-Leasing cover-up.

Kenyans should face up to the fact that KACC is here to stay, regardless of who is in charge and use it to fight corruption - by reporting what they observe & perceive to be corrupt activities.

In the absence of proper whistle blower protection in the country, the commission has made it possible to report corruption anonymously (even by e-mail) which should trigger investigations such as those mentioned (in the quarterly report)that range from alleged CEO shopping demands to lowly clerks asking for bribes.

One weak point of KACC is that they only make public reports once their investigations are complete. They should also mention ongoing investigations and give a chance to more people to come forward, give evidence, and build stronger cases.

Unfortunate reference
In reading on the Citigroup/ CNBC ethical debate, I came upon the phrase Ugandan Discussions - an unfortunate slang term which demeans a country.

Musical Chairs

After steering Kenya Commercial Bank to profitability, respectability and restoring shareholder confidence (a long process that began with Gareth George), KCB group CEO Terry Davidson could be on his way out. The bank had advertised for the group CEO position as Davidson’s contract will expire in mid 2007. Applications should be sent to Manpower Associates (Naiorbi) within the next two weeks. Who will replace him? Only a career banker can, as the JD specified applicants must be under 50 years of age and have worked in banking for at least 15 years, with at least 10 in senior management. In 2005, KCB created the post of deputy CEO and selected former finance permanent secretary, Martin Oduor Otieno who still holds the job.

Also looking for new leadership is the (about to have an IPO) Kenya Reinsurance Corporation which has also advertised to replaced their suspended managing director and head of finance. (Interested? Apply to jobs@biz-ideas.biz by 16/2)

Recovery Week

Out of hospital and recovering this week and trying to catch up after two weeks away from a computer. Missed so much, mailboxes are full, have to send proper replies, and most of the news links are now out-dated and need to be refreshed.

It was a pleasant week, whose main difficulty was the passage to time. I read many books and consulted Dr. Hannibal Lecter who had spent 8 years in one room.

Describe a share investor
The Economist published a series on executive compensation and ran a quote from 17 years ago that can be used to accurately describe (we) investors who speculate on shares;

To a shareholder in a typical company, a share is little more than a betting slip. It is bought at what a shareholder thinks are good odds to provide winnings he hopes will be large.

The notion that he owns part of a company makes as much sense to him as it would for the average gambler to imagine he owns part of a horse running in a 2:30 race.

A title deed to a house tells someone what he knows instinctively - that he owns the place and must care for it. A share certificate tells him nothing more than that he has the right to a dividend and the chance to make some cash.

Tiomin sells out
Tiomin will sell ATW Venture Corp. a 50% interest in the Kenyan mineral sands for US$35 million to raise funds owing to cost escalations.

Githongo blog
He must be wondering what he has to do to get his point, but after putting up a blog he should be very careful

Stanbic Results
With over 1 billion shares on offer and despite the over-subscription, there’s won’t be too many complaints about allocation;
- Uganda nationals get full allocation up to 2.15 million shares
- Others (including Kenyans) get full allocation up to 109,500 shares (about 312,000 shillings)[But the stock exchange there trades for (I think) 3 days a week]

Sky please
After years of getting (and under appreciating) SKY news of Britain, the local STV channel has taken it down and replaced it with VOA TV. There’s no apparent reason why VOA should be broadcasting as there’s nothing I’ve seen that is newsworthy or worth tuning in for.

Opportunities

Jobs

International director of fund raising at AMREF. Details here and apply through olga@crsearchandselection.com by 9/2

Financial controller at Children’s International. Apply through KPMG at esd@kpmg.co.ke by 2/2

Senior project officers (2) at EADB Nairobi. Apply to the Kenya country manager at box 47685 by 16/2

Housing Finance: Manager [HR], assistant manager[legal], officer [insurance]. Apply to human.resources@housing.co.ke by 3/2

I&M Bank: Details here for Cashiers [Tellers], Liability Manager, Trade Finance Officer, and Relationship Manager [Assets].

Marshalls: General Manager (Tata), General Manager (KIA/Honda), Marketing Manager. Apply through Dagger Consultants at gd@africaonline.co.ke by 9/2

National Oil Corporation: Various jobs including customer service assistant, ICT manager and internal audit assistant. Apply to hr@nockenya.co.ke by 13/2

NIC Bank: Nakuru [business development manager, sales executives (2), branch advances officer, branch customer service officer], Mombasa [service delivery manager], Nairobi [Corporate relationship manager]. Apply to the Head of HR 44599-00100 Nairobi by 7/2

Finance manager at Sense International - Nairobi. Apply to info@senseint-ea.org by 2/2

Finance manager at Tearfund - Nairobi. Apply to internationaljob@tearfund.org by 31/1

Other

KCB is seeking new ATM machines to expand its network into the hundreds.

The Nairobi Stock Exchange will conduct a Market Index Review via a consultancy.

Associate consultants at the influential Steadman Group. Apply to md@steadman-group.com

Drip Cycle

0000 can’t believe two hours have passed and the drip is finished. Finished reading Next (a gift from AfroM) and I now start reading this week's Time. They can’t start a new drip because wrist is swollen where the vein has had enough. Note: Nurses seem more callous at night. Are they tired or more hardened to the calls of patients at midnight?
0012 Nurse disconnects drip - releasing me to go to the toilet. "Always carry your phone with you" - is something you are advised when you check in as phones tend to disappear, usually if you fall asleep during visiting hours. The toilet lights are off at night and there’s no switch but using my Nokia screen - there's no need for a light.
0017 Back to bed. Not really sleepy and I don’t use the mosquito net
0028 Mosquito buzzes my face. There’s a myth that Nairobi mosquitoes don’t transmit malaria, but I don’t wish to complicate my recovery/treatment by proving this out and I clumsily put the net down to cover the upper half of the bed and fall asleep
0145 Doctor comes in with a nurse. They make a new cut in my left hand and insert a tube to attach a new drip. Drip in right hand is removed and sealed with bandage.
0200 Another nurse comes and connects the drip bottle to the new tube. Back to sleep.
0530 Use toilet but this time i use the urinal – it’s a paper gourd that they bring round and is good for two flows. When on drip and drinking fluids throughout, one needs to go to bathroom a lot
0625 Nurse comes in to administer blood pressure, pulse, and temperature tests
0632 Get SMS from Couch Tato telling me when I might find a rare DVD I am looking for. (Does he ever sleep?)
0640 new jug of drinking water delivered by waiter.
0800 Watching CNN news: I must find out what the differences are between Sunni’s and Shiite’s.
0821 Breakfast brought in. Even though I am supposed to be on a low fat diet, they keep bringing some fatty foods. Take porridge, weetabix, banana, and tea leaving aside the boiled egg and sausage.
0852 finish breakfast – takes longer to eat with the wrong hand
0937 finish reading Time magazine
0955 Take a shower, and get new gown & shorts as my bed is changed. I am not able to walk about because my doctor shows up. She examines me, is happy with progress but asks that a blood sample be taken tomorrow morning after which she’ll consider discharging me
1000 Back to bed. If I had my Celtel line I’d be able to make more daytime calls, but stuck with Safaricom and waiting for whoever calls. I get a call from the office
1005 Drip reconnected. Must finish my lucozade bottle by tomorrow when I leave. Hate this stuff
1145 Finish reading a chapter of a manuscript and use paper toilet before visiting hours start
1150 Dietician brings suggested menu/foods for my recovery after I leave hospital and we discuss what is acceptable and what’s banned
1205 Have to use toilet. This time I ask to be disconnected and walk to the bathroom. Getting sloppy, this is the first time I have left my phone behind. I rush back to find its still there
1210 – 1215 first visitors of the day – and one brings another bottle of lucozade
1220 Itch on my right hand and realise it’s a mosquito bite from last night – I hope it drank saline instead of my blood.
1222 Lunch arrives
1225 More visitors. My sister is first and I send her downstairs to buy the newspapers (perks of being in hospital) and a Safaricom airtime card. They’re here as I eat lunch. Have wide discussion about the poor state of roads, book publishing. 1405 Back to toilet. As I am washing hands, I drop my phone in the sink. I scoop it up and take paper towels back with me where I strip, dry, and clean the phone which seems to be intact.
1440 Still reading newspaper but no drip running. I go to the nurses’ station to ask to be reconnected to drip.
1500 Still no one. I ring my buzzer and when nurse responds, ask again to be reconnected to drip. There seems to be a slacking of work as nursing shift ends and another begins as those going off have to prepare extensive reports.
1520 – 1530 New nurse comes and attached new drip bottle
1540 Start reading Foul about corruption in the soccer administration world. It's a great and someone should give a copy to our sports minister who’ trying to sort out Kenyan soccer. Other countries like Antigua and Jamaica have gone though what Kenya is going through (interim committees, normalization committees, suspension, and threats) FIFA does not appear to like government interference and prefers to deal with local sports administrators however corrupt they are.
1550 Waiter comes round but I decline afternoon tea. Other patients are asleep and I ask him to turn off TV, which is now showing a (annoying) kids variety show.
1650 Still reading Foul when first evening visitors arrive. Some visitors are interesting, others are tiring. For many, I have too repeat the story of who I ended up here. I engage some visitors in constructive talk; get advice on recovery while others have nothing to say. Still pick up some tips – I may get my full allocation of Stanbic IPO shares, and while this hospital has no internet for patients (am told), Kenyatta National Hospital (of all places) is a wireless hot spot
1830 I get a late visitor. Near the end of visiting time, guards don’t let in more visitors (except VIP’s) but my buddy assures me she can get past any time as she has a stethoscope in her car she wears.
1850 My boss visits. He’s on leave, but working on other projects. He advises me to enjoy the enforced rest and avoid dealing with office matters
1900-1920 Watch the 7 PM news as I eat dinner. Chicken again though not as fatty this time.
1945 Go to bathroom again
2000 Drip is reconnected. Lie back and drift in and out of sleep. TV still on with Spanish soaps with bad accents, and later the 9PM news. I try and remember the name of the movie where Wesley Snipes or Steven Seagal's characters' rip drip tubes from their arms, fight people sent to kill them and flee from hospital in a wheelchair. 0015 Wake again TV still on. Busta & Diddy’s “Pass the Courvesoir” video is on but not as interesting to watch three years later.

Share splits continue

ICDCI formalized their share split yesterday as CMC also announced a 10 for 1 share split.

Pressure will continue to build on companies with high flying shares like BAT, Bamburi and Standard Chartered to follow Barclays, Sasini, and EA Cables in announcing share splits. Speculation about splits has also caught on at KPLC, Equity, NMG and Jubilee.

Oil
- NOCK will acquire 45 service stations from Somken an independent Kenyan company which seems to be shifting its focus to oil exploration.

Jobs

AIG Kenya
- Consumer marketing manager
- Agency development manager
HR-kenya@aig.com by 26/1

Internal auditor at Care Kenya. apply to hrmanager@care.or.ke by 20/1

Project management office Director at the East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) - Mombasa. Details here and deadline to info@eatta.co.ke is 22/1

Family finance: - Head of business development, branch business development managers (5), Credit officers (27), procurement officer. Apply online by 27/1

Executive director at Forum for Africa women educations Apply through KPMG by 31/1

Kenya commercial development foundation: Finance & investment manager, financial management accountant, grants management accountant, communications officer and interns. details here and deadline is by 26/1

Tsavo securities: Head of stock broking head of fixed income head of ICT and head of research as well as relationship managers apply through manpower associates

Following the recent government director on using chase cars to escort money to/from banks G4S/Securicor will hire over 800 new drivers

distributorships
For Celtel in Nairobi, Coast, Mt. Kenya, Western, Nyanza, Central & North rifts. Contact Kioi.e@ke.celtel.com

For Honda motorcycles in Kenya. Contact Takao_Ishizuka@hm.honda.co.jp

EADB Venture Capital

The East African Development Bank is proposing to set up a venture capital fund to invest between $100,000 to $1 million in companies who have turnover over $100,000 and are prepared to give the fund shares in exchange for capital invested. Expressions of interest to be sent to venturecapital@eadb.org

State of the VC

Is Kenya ready for VCs? Do we have the expertise and are they necessary?
The regulations for the VC industry are yet to be formalized and the Acacia Fund remains the only venture capital firm licensed by the CMA. But there are other players such as ICDCI, investment advisers, investment companies, and entities like Transcentury who can arrange equity-based financing for viable companies.

Given the archaic company laws and endless court processes, entrepreneurs in Kenya have to be very careful about who they let in as equity partners. They feel better off borrowing from a bank that they can pay off and walk away from after a while instead of having VC as partner/co-owner.

The VC route is more suitable for established companies who have a good long-term understanding of their requirements and the benefits that are offered by different equity partners.

A more viable, non-VC option for start-ups is the government’s proposed youth enterprise fund which was gazetted in December. (read more)

Mid East Careers

Companies this week looking for Kenyans to go work abroad

KBR, the global engineering & and construction subsidiary of the Haliburton Corporation, is seeking people to go work in the Middle East & Central Asia for a variety of positions including transport & maintenance, craft & trades, logistics, and management & administration. Apply online.

Cabin crew at Qatar Airways. Apply online by January 12.

Work ethic & sucession

Work ethic is something I’ll have to work on in 2007. In vying to start the aforementioned kiosk, I still have the idea that I can sit in an office all day and only visit the shop in the evening to collect the day’s income, pay bills, and reconcile accounts & inventory. That may be a recipe for mediocrity.

Just before Christmas, I went to buy some wine from a famous small town shop. The proprietor, let's call him Mr. Shah, has been at his storefront for the last 20 years. He is supported by his grown children and their spouses to run the shop and despite millions of shillings in annual turnover, they still have modest and humble lifestyles. He’s there from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. - 6 days a week and drives a 20 year old Mercedes.

This management style of Asian businessmen where they commit themselves, family, and their time to running the shop is admirable – and you see it in hardware, auto part shops, pharmacies, supermarkets etc. – i.e. owners being on the ground [not far away in someone else’s office, trying to run the shop via remote control - over the phone to avoid relatives looking for jobs, creditors, and others seeking favors]

Some business run by remote control may succeed, but rarely. As an owner I’ll have to get down & dirty with customers and suppliers ever day and know the business in & out and ring the cash register myself – and that will come by being in the shop full time. I have already promised a distant an uncle that his currently unemployed son could run the shop once it’s ready – but I may have to rescind that offer. Am I ready for that? I don't know.

There are limits at succession time – as a parent has to convince his kids that their future is in the shop and not being a CPA working at a multi-national firm. This is a dilemma Indian shopowners and African land owners/farmers face – with many of them running large businesses but which their kids have no interest in taking over. What happns to the business after many years? Sell out - move abroad/travel the world for the rest of their lives? I hope that will be a dilemna I'll be facing in 20 years time (i.e. How do I give away my money/estate?).

Giant in pothole

Mugoya Construction Company has been placed under receivership by their principal bankers KCB.

- Earlier post.
- How a receivership happens.

Transition into 2007

2006 was a great year thanks to bloging.

Looking back

- High point: the great people I met through the KBW buffet park meet ups

- High point # 2: getting invited to the digital citizen indaba in South Africa – my first real visit to another African country and I got an idea of what to expect at the 2010 World Cup.

Low point: getting booted from adsense by Google - which happened just as I was getting used to having blogging provide some supplemental income through advertising. Thanks to Stocktrends and Alex Gichira (Ed. Business Post) for their support of my efforts since then.



traffic
- Used statcounter (& still do) but it doesn’t provide much historical data so I also signed up with Google analytics in September.
- 43% visitors of visits are from within Nairobi - which is suprising since the target audience is Kenyans in the diaspora and most of what I write should be apparent to people here in Naiorbi. Still it’s encouraging.
- Fewest visits on Sundays - means most of you read in the office!

top posts
- Kenya exam results online (highest traffic [4X normal] was recorded on 28 December - not to read my banking summary for the year but to locate KCPE exams results online!)
- No drugs at NSE
- Where to buy shares
- Money transfer within Kenya
- Bank rankings June 2006

my faves - in terms of the comments and feedback I received
- Safaricom success
- No apologies
- Idea exchange & barter trade
- training Kenyans for outsourcing
- Where to buy shares (part ii) redux

Changes in 2007

Fewer posts: the amount of information posted by new bloggers and sites – such as nairobist, stockskenya, pesa tu, riba capital, cold tusker (now investing in Africa), hisagal, odegle nyang and others (see my blogroll) is a blessing for everyone. Foir me, it’s less to do, less news to bring up, and I can focus on more research and longer posts.

more techie; I owe so much to blogging so I must improve by learning more tech stuff and experiementing with more tools. I hope to have more photo posts this year and try out new templates (many people don’t like the black background). However bankelele is not eligible for blogger beta as it may be too large to migrate.

kioskelele: 2007 will be the year to take the plunge into the informal sector / entrepreneurship by starting a kiosk/shop/SME and continue to diversify my income. These opportunities are not there forever and we have to take them on otherwise we will regret forever why we didn't follow our dreams. Still looking for the right location in the city that is accessible and suitable.

more savings: So far so good but a book I read recently (the "automatic millionaire") said saving should happen automatically - i.e. money grows when you can't see it/have no chance to intercept it & use the money. Only problem is that standing orders at Kenyan banks are so expensive – and it’s wrong to have 5 – 10% of money intended for savings be eaten up by bank charges. I found a bank which was much cheaper, but they sometimes forget to remit the money into the account!

Quit share trading: Not quite, but there will be less trading of shares this year and focus will remain on IPO’s and new issues like Safaricom. It’s not that the brokers are bad, but there are too many shareholders (since Kengen, Scangroup, and Eveready) who occupy brokers’ offices and phone lines from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is too much hassle going there, trying to call in orders - that sometimes I think it may be better to cash in my gains and reinvest them in an Old Mutual fund or new investment club. (The folks at the Kenya capital investment group have posted their investment club constitution which is a good guide for those wishing to start a club)

Fun fact: from an article in the Economist on the etiquette of bribery.

Q: "What’s the difference between a gift and a bribe?"
A: "Any gift, must be consumable in a single day - so a bottle of wine is acceptable, a case of wine is not."

opportunities

Head of keg business at East African breweries. Apply to hr.recruitment@eabl.com by 6/1

ICDCI Investment manager, risk manager, business analyst, investment analyst, risk analyst. Details at their site and deadline for applications to jobs@icdci.co.ke is 19/1

Procurement adviser – public sector & development at KPMG. Apply to esd@kpmg.co.ke by 12/1

Commissioner of domestic tax revenue KRA. Apply through KPMG at esd@kpmg.co.ke by 7/1

Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Principal Counselors (4), First Counselor (11), Second Counselors (22), First Secretary (28) and Third Secretary Cadet (64) Posts. Details and deadline is 12/1

Head, Communications Unit at World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) . Details and deadline for applications to icrafhru@cgiar.org is 19/1