Collymore says Safaricom will not risk CBK’s wrath over bitcoin transactions

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore has said the telecommunications giant will not agree to have bitcoin-related transactions on its M-Pesa system unless the virtual currency is authorised by the banking sector regulator. Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore says bitcoin transactions would expose M-Pesa to Central Bank of Kenya’s money laundering penalties [...]

Sasini books Sh1.1bn gain from sale of Nyeri land

Agricultural firm Sasini has sold 513.7 acres of its leasehold land in Nyeri for Sh1 billion in a transaction that boosted its net profit to Sh1.1 billion in the year ended September The company booked a gain of about Sh1 billion in the transactions, having carried the assets in its books at a highly conservative Sh1.39 million. The land sale compensated for weaker performance in Sasini’s agricultural operations [...]

Equity, Co-op and I&M biggest buyers of corporate bonds

Commercial banks have emerged as the top buyers of Kenya’s corporate bonds, taking advantage of the high interest rates offered on the papers to lock in regular gains. Regulatory filings show that the banks have hogged most of the big corporate bonds, with insurers and pension funds also making significant purchases of the debt papers [...]

Treasury bill yields begin rising after falling for few weeks

Three- and six-month Treasury bills have started to rise in line with analysts forecast that the recent fall in yields on government paper was unlikely to last. In the latest auction, the 91-day T-bill paper was sold at a rate of 9.941 per cent having risen by 0.279 percentage points from the previous week. The rate on the 182-day paper was 11.707 per cent last week, an increase from 11.099 per cent the previous week [...]

Alexander Forbes eyes diaspora cash with pension plan

Financial and risk services firm Alexander Forbes (AF) has launched a pension and savings plan for Kenyans in the diaspora, targeting the billions in remittances sent home every year. Alexander Forbes will partner with the Kenya Diaspora Alliance (KDA) to roll out the plan, which will be regulated by the Retirement Benefits Authority. The KDA will assist in marketing and promoting the plan to Kenyans living abroad. The alliance will get a commission for new business they bring into the plan [...]

City investment club launches insurance agency

Amalgamated Chama Limited, the investment arm of an umbrella body of investment groups, has ventured into insurance brokerage in Nairobi. The investment club has launched Chama Insurance Agency targeting both members and non-members in the increasingly crowded insurance space. The agency will be leveraging on the investment Amalgamated Chama has made [...]

NSE 20 share index prices fall after news of US Fed rate rise

Share prices of half of the companies linked to the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) 20 Share Index fell last Friday as some foreign investors sold. The 20-share index slipped below 4,000 points last Friday, having lost 15.27 points as half of its counters lost. The US Federal Reserve raised the rate by 0.25 percentage points, sparking a variety of reactions in global markets across the world market [...]