BritAm and Swala Investments

Last week saw the announcement of two new regional investment opportunities – one a new bond offer in Kenya and the other – an IPO in Tanzania – that both close on July 4.

BritAm Bond: Kenyan financial group Britam announced a Kshs 6 billion ($69 million) bond  which will be two tranches starting with an initial target of Kshs 3 billion.

Some excerpts from the bond prospectus 

• There is green shoe option of Kshs 1 billion in the first tranche.
• Funds raised will be utilized in private equity, ICT development and local and regional expansion projects.
• The minimum investment is Kshs 100,000 (~$1,150) with multiples after of Kshs 50,000.
• The 5 year bond (maturing in July 2019) pays 13% a year (6.5% every six months). So if you invest Kshs 100,000, you will get an interest  payment of ($) Kshs. 6,500 twice a year.
• The bonds will be listed at the NSE for easy trading.
• At the end of 2013 BritAm had Kshs 47 billion of assets, revenue of Kshs 15 billion and pre tax profit of Kshs 3.1b. They had Kshs 3.7 billion in investment property and Kshs 6.1 billion in listed companies. They own 21% of Housing Finance, 10% of Equity Bank and 25% of Acorn group. They are acquiring Real Insurance for Kshs 1.3 billion (825m cash and shares  for the balance).
• The bond issuance will cost Kshs 57m shillings - and Dyer & Blair get about Kshs 36M of this as the arranger gets (27M) and for the Placement (9M).

Swala Energy: Swala Oil & Gas (Tanzania) aim to raise between TZS 1.6 billion ($969,000) if they sells 3.2 billion shares and TZS4.8b ($4.8 million) if they sell 9.6 billion shares at TZS 500 each. The Offer is conditional on the Company achieving a minimum subscription of 3,200,000 Shares under this Prospectus, to raise TZS 1,600,000,000 (before expenses of the Offer). The Company may decide not to allot any shares and repay all application monies or seek a no objection to proceed with the allotment, in case the minimum subscription is not attained.

• The minimum subscription is TZS 50,000 ($30) for 100 Shares. You can apply online, but a physical application form must be received at the brokers by 4^th July.
• Swala has total assets of $1.8 million in 2013 (up from $75,000 in 2012) . revenue in 2013 was $285,000 (up from $62k)  and loss was $5.5 million for the year (down from $1.26m the year before).

• They are fundraising as they plan to spend $3.5M next year and $6M the year after.
• A London broker values the company at $52.3 million based on 50% interest in Pangani (an area of 8578 sq. km worth $25.1m) and 50% in Kilosa Kilombero (an area of 8838 sq. km worth $36.3m). Otto Energy is a 50% partner in both of these ventures. 
• The Costs of filing will be between TZS 210M and TZS 248M ($150,000) with printing costing 32M, accountants 40m (~25,000 to BDO), technical specialist (Risc Pty) 40M legal (Asyla) 16m, nominated advisors 27M (~$16,000 to Arch Financial if $3m is raised) and the Dar es Salaam Exchange gets 27M.
• The Swala Energy prospectus gives insights on Kenya oil deals that are rarely public and which are used as a basis for valuation of these shares and for comparison as they are all in the East Africa Rift System E.g. Recent Kenya transactions (EARS ) include Marathon Oil bought aBlock 12A license from Africa Oil for $78.5M and a Block 9 license, Africa Oil bought a  Block 12A license from Tullow for $3.86M ($1,265 per sq. KM and Adamantine sold a Block 11B license to Bowleven for $10M ($1,429 per sq. KM).
• In Tanzania, profits from oil are shared out as 45% government and 55% to the contractor when production is less than 12,500 barrels per day and when barrels are over 100,000 per day, the government gets 70% and the contractor 30%.
• Swala has applied for approval to list on the Enterprise growth Market section of the Dar es Salaam stock exchange (they need 100 shareholders so list).
• Swala will go from holding 74% to 61%  and new shareholders all have 10% with convertible note holders with 7%.
• Tanzanian Applicants will be allocated Offer Shares in priority to all other Applicants. Any Offer Shares remaining thereafter will be allocated to East African Applicants. Offer Shares will only be allocated to Foreign Applicants if they have not all been acquired by Tanzanian Applicants and East African Applicants.