Equity brokerage arm gains most in 2015

Equity Investment Bank’s partnership with UK’s Exotix Partners helped push it up the ladder in 2015, leaving it among market leaders with strong foreign trading desks. EIB had 4.49 per cent market share in 2014, ranking the firm eighth among the 19 brokers who traded in the bourse. Block trades the firm executed in the second quarter of the year when Helios Partners was selling off its stake in Equity Holdings helped boost turnover numbers [...]

Foreign investors hunt for bargains at equities as NSE-20 loses further

Foreign investors returned to the equities market in Wednesday’s trading hunting for bargains as the indicative 20 share index lost for the fifth trading session in a row, shedding 30 points to close the day at 3880.13. Foreign investors have been net sellers in the last three consecutive sessions, a trend that would have resulted in renewed pressure on the local currency [...]

Kenya Airways in aircraft sale deal with US carrier

Kenya Airways (KQ) is set to sell two aircraft to a US-based airline as part of a turnaround strategy that the national carrier hopes will help it bounce back from its loss-making financial position. KQ announced its intention to sell the four Boeing planes in November 2014 seeking to rationalize its fleet as part of its turnaround strategy [...]

NBK inks joint money services deal with Airtel

The National Bank of Kenya (NBK) and Airtel Wednesday announced a partnership that will see the two firms offer a wide range of financial services to their customers. Airtel customers will manage their bank accounts through the Airtel Money platform and carry out transactions via the lender’s branches. NBK customers will access the mobile banking platform — NatMobile — via Airtel Money [...]

Investment firm FEP buys 5 per cent stake in Nyachae’s Credit Bank

Fountain Enterprises Programme (FEP) Group has acquired a five per cent stake in Credit Bank as it awaits regulatory approval to take controlling interest in the third-tier bank chaired by politician Simeon Nyachae. Fountain Enterprises Programme bought the stake in late 2015 after Credit Bank dropped a private placement share offer after the Imperial Bank scandal scared potential sector investors [...]

Imperial Bank targets Sh1.3bn from Uganda subsidiary stake sale

Forensic auditors of Imperial Bank, which is under statutory management, say the lender is looking at raising Sh1.25 billion from the sale of its 51 per cent stake in its Uganda operations. The Ugandan unit was set up in 2010 at a cost of Sh448 million and has six branches in [...]

Kenya’s July-October 2015 tea export earnings jump 42p.c

The value of tea exports increased by 41.9 per cent in the four months to last October compared to a similar period in previous year, signalling better pay for farmers this year.m The growth in price could be attributed to the strong dollar that has favoured the exports as well as a decline in volume of tea which has spurred unmet demand for the commodity [...]

Fastjet group CEO set to step down from position

Africa-focused budget airline Fastjet Plc, which this week launched flights from Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro to Nairobi, has announced that its chief executive Ed Winter will step down soon [...]

Eddy Njoroge group eases hold on Britam with further trade

Royal Ngao Holdings, an investment company owned by among others businessman Eddy Njoroge, has made a second trade of its Britam stake following the group’s buyout by the NSE-listed insurer in April 2014 [...]