Centum signs deal with UK brothers for Rea Vipingo

Investment firm Centum has reached a multi-billion shilling  deal with two British brothers that will see it withdraw its hostile takeover bid for Rea Vipingo, an NSE-listed agricultural firm majority owned by the UK citizens. The deal will see Centum acquire 10,546 acres of prime Rea Vipingo land for Sh2 billion in exchange for withdrawing its rival bid. The settlement allows Richard and Jeremy Robinow, whose investment vehicle REA Trading already owns 57 per cent of Rea, to proceed with their offer to buy out the company at a price of up to Sh85 per share and de-list it from the stock market [...]

Mobile soft loans for power consumers

Safaricom and Kenya Power have jointly launched a mobile phone-based soft loan facility for electricity consumers which will see customers get advance credit to settle their energy bills and repay the debt within seven days.  Kenya Power consumers will get credit to settle power bills of between Sh100 and Sh2,000, which will be repaid at an upfront flat rate of 10 per cent of the borrowed amount [...]

Safaricom’s historic Sh681bn market value excites investors

Safaricom on Thursday touched a historic trading high of Sh17 on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), raising its market capitalisation by a hefty Sh41 billion compared to Monday this week. The latest high by Safaricom will be welcome news to shareholders including Vodafone Group and the government, who hold 40 and 35 per cent respectively in the company respectively. Retail investors hold the remaining 25 per cent in the company [...]

KWFT profit up 25 per cent on deposits growth

The Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT) has grown its profits by a quarter as it started reaping the benefits of its conversion to a microfinance bank. KWFT reported a profit after tax of Sh490 million up from Sh391 million a year earlier. The lender has been aggressive in growing its business, trying to attract both savers and borrowers. KWFT is ranked as the largest player in the microfinance bank sector with over 600,000 customers who are largely women [...]

Local coffee prices drop 26pc as Brazil floods global market

Prices at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) have dropped by 26 per cent in the last month as a result of high supply at the international market that is hurting the local price. Traders at the NCE peg their prices to the world’s largest auction in New York and low prices there affect the local crop given the fact that over 90 per cent of the beverage is exported [...]

Mbaru, Devji, Turner appointed to NSE board
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has appointed Dyer and Blair founder Jimnah Mbaru, Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) chief executive Nasim Devji and Actis East Africa managing director Michael Turner to its board of directors.  The appointment of the three as non-executive members of the board raises the number of directors at the bourse from eight to eleven [...]

KenolKobil cuts debt exposure by Sh4 billion

Oil marketer KenolKobil cut its short term debts by more than Sh4 billion last year, helping to reduce its finance costs by a quarter. The deep cut on finance costs saw the KenolKobil’s net profit nearly double to Sh1 billion, even as sales declined to Sh91.3 billion from Sh109.6 billion reported in 2013 [...]

StanChart crosses Sh10bn after-tax profit mark

StanChart Kenya hit the Sh10 billion after-tax profit mark for the first time riding on property sales to hold on to its ranking as the third most profitable lender in the country. StanChart Kenya reported a net profit of Sh10.4 billion for the year ended December compared to Sh9.2 billion in 2013. The lender relied on cost-cutting to compensate for a weaker performance in its core business, which saw its loan book and deposit base shrink [...]