CFC Stanbic, BOC Kenya chief executives resign

The CEOs of Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firms CfC Stanbic Holdings and BOC Kenya Ltd have resigned, leaving their firms with the task of hiring their replacements. CfC’s chief executive Kitili Mbathi resigned Friday and has been replaced on a temporary basis by Greg Brackenridge, currently the CEO of the company’s subsidiary CfC Stanbic Bank. Mr Mbathi had held the position for eight years [...]

Liberty Holdings pushes number of NSE profit warnings to 18

Listed insurer, Liberty Kenya Holdings, has said its 2015 full-year earnings will drop by at least a quarter, growing the list of Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE)-listed firms that have issued profit warnings to 18. Pan Africa Holdings, Britam and UAP Holdings are other insurers that have issued profit warnings with all of them citing erosion of their portfolios at the bourse. The life insurer attributed the anticipated profit drop to a sustained bear run at the Securities Exchange where it is heavily invested [...]

Crown Paints to open Sh400m plant

Crown Paints is set to open a Sh400 million factory in Kisumu. This is expected to help the firm cut costs as it seeks to cash in on the growing real estate market in the Western region. The paint maker is putting the final touches on the construction of the facility, which should open in the coming weeks. The firm which is the only paint manufacturer listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), raised issue with the delays in clearing Crown’s products to Tanzania, saying this was hurting its regional business [...]

Treasury stake in Telkom Kenya to rise by 10 per cent

The Treasury is set to acquire an additional 10 per cent stake in Telkom Kenya under a new deal that has been negotiated as part of the terms of France Telecom’s planned sale of its shares in the company to Helios Investment Partners, a private equity firm. When the deal is concluded, the government’s total shareholding in the troubled company will rise to 40 per cent. Helios has expressed the intention to acquire France Telecom’s entire 70 per cent stake in Telkom Kenya. Helios is taking huge risks buying an entity that is deeply in debt and more or less insolvent [...]

Brookside plans for West Africa exports get Buhari visit boost

Brookside Dairy’s target of breaking into the West African export market got a boost Thursday with a visit of its Ruiru processing factory by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. Brookside plans to start exports to the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), having already covered the East African market [...]

Domain name firm signs deal to increase .ke usage

The Kenya Network Information Centre (Kenic), a non-profit organisation that allocates local Internet addresses system, has contracted East Africa Data Centre (EADC) to host its servers as it seeks to boost its uptime and grow its client base. Last year in March Kenic slashed the retail price of the dot ke domain by 66.7 per cent to Sh1,000 in a bid to encourage uptake by more Kenyan firms [...]