Britam posts 23pc jump in 2014 after-tax profit
Financial services group British-American Investments Company Limited (Britam) has announced an after tax profit of Sh2.8 billion for the year ended December 31 2014, up 23 per cent from Sh2.3 billion the previous year. Group Managing Director explained that the key drivers for Britam’s growth were new business opportunities in regional growth and expansion, strategic partnerships, new product offerings, real estate investment and opportunities in county governments [...]

Safaricom restructures top level management, Peter Arina and Pauline Warui exit
Safaricom has made major changes at its senior level management suite that has seen Peter Arina, the general manager Consumer Business and Pauline Warui the director consumer services exit the company. Sources at Safaricom said the two opted to resign when they were confronted with the performance of the units they were in charge of. The consumer business contributes about 90 per cent of Safaricom’s annual revenue [...]

Last chance to claim Discount Securities compensation
Over 10,000 investors are yet to lodge claims for compensation from Discount Securities nearly six years after the stockbroker collapsed, regulators say. Any investor who lost money in the stockbroker’s collapse has until up to June 30, 2015 to make a claim forfeit their right to do so. CMA-appointed agents will begin making payments on April 1 this year during a “second and final phase” that will last three months [...]

Tea from Nandi, Kisii fetches high prices for first time in 20 years
Tea from western Kenya has for the first time in 20 years attracted a high average price than that from Meru which has been a favourite at the Mombasa auction. The price of a kilogramme from Kisii and Nandi regions fetched $3.90 (Sh354) in last week’s auction with the one from Meru trading at $2.70 (Sh245). Middle East buyers are scrambling for tea from western Kenya because of its deep colouration, which is one of the attributes on which traders base their offer prices as consumers have a high preference for it [...]

Safaricom to switch M-Pesa off for routine maintenance
Safaricom plans to completely shut down its popular M-Pesa money transfer service for nine hours this weekend to allow for a “scheduled maintenance”. M-Pesa services will not be available from 11pm Saturday March 21, 2015, and will resume at 8am Sunday March 22. They, however, say this is normal maintenance and not the anticipated switchover to local hosting of M-Pesa servers, from Germany to Kenya by the beginning of April. This promises users of the mobile money transfer service a more reliable system [...]

Merali sale of final Airtel stake got him Sh738mn
Billionaire businessman Naushad Merali sold off his remaining five per cent stake in telecommunications company Airtel Kenya four years ago, giving the Indian parent company Bharti Airtel full control of the firm. The sale of the remaining five per cent may have been part of Naushad Merali’s exit plans from the company, in which he relinquished the position of chairman last year after being at the helm for 15 years. It adds on to the major sell-offs Mr Merali made in the ICT sector in the recent past, in what has been linked to cut-throat competition from new entrants in the telecoms business [...]