Jambojet leases another plane amid row with pilots

Kenya Airways’ budget carrier Jambojet has leased a second plane to serve the Eldoret and Kisumu routes amid a row with its pilots who are afraid of losing their jobs. The low-cost carrier said on Thursday it had leased a second plane and flight crew from DAC Aviation following a decision to increase its weekly flights to Kisumu by three to 16 beginning Thursday [...]

Safaricom picks in-house manager to replace Waita

Safaricom has promoted Steve Chege to the position of director of corporate affairs, taking over from Nzioka Waita who left the telco a week ago. Mr Steve Chege has been Safaricom’s head of regulatory and public policy, a position that he has held for the past three years. Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore also promoted Mary-Anne Kui Kinyanjui to head the corporate and communications department [...]

Express Kenya bleeds red as loss of EABL contract bites

Transport and logistics company Express Kenya has slipped into loss for the full-year ended December in a further reflection of the dwindling fortunes of the NSE-listed firm, which is yet to recover from the hit of losing its key customer the East African Breweries (EABL) four years ago. Express Kenya has for the second year in a row sent out a profit warning, saying it expects its net earnings to drop by over 75 per cent compared to the previous year’s Sh229,000 [...]

Investors shy away from buying old upmarket homes

Investors buying old homes in leafy Nairobi suburbs for redevelopment are increasingly finding it hard tomake money from subsequent investments due to inflated prices, a new survey by the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) said. Nairobi has seen a wave of apartment developments in areas previously populated exclusively by stand-alone homes on very large compounds. This has come with relaxation of the city zoning laws to cater for a rising population amid a housing shortage [...]

Auditors warn of market slump if CGT rules not right

Auditors want the taxman to take into account issues raised by stakeholders when implementing capital gains tax (CGT) to avert a market slump, which would hit both capital and property markets. Changes on administration of the tax can only be introduced through a finance Bill and players such as stockbrokers and property developers are lobbying hard to have their views accommodated ahead of the Budget. [...]

Capital markets regulator crafting rules for new index-linked products

Regulations for new collective investments products modelled on unit trusts but with lower management fees will be introduced by July this year. The instruments, known as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), will then be introduced at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) by issuers or fund managers. An ETF is a fund to which investors contribute money which goes into buying securities that compose an index or a defined group of securities — such as banking or insurance stocks — put together [...]

Turkana investment  talks pay off with deals worth billions

Investors roundtable talks held in September last year in Turkana have paid off with deals worth billions of shillings set to boost the county’s economic growth. UN plans to invest $182 million (Sh11.6 billion) in Turkana in three years. Other partners are Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Lundin Foundation, Innovation Norway, Germany Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), PHIL International—a Dubai-based real estate developer and USAID.  Aegis Trust will also partner in peace building in the county [...]