Safaricom owners set for big pay day after Sh32bn profit

Telecoms operator Safaricom Thursday announced a generous dividend policy that promises its owners the highest payout jump since its listing on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE). Vodafone, the UK firm that is Safaricom’s single-largest shareholder with a 40 per cent stake, will take home Sh10.2 billion up from Sh7.52 billion the previous year and is also set to pocket billions of shillings as service fees for its proprietary rights in M-Pesa. The Treasury, with a 35 per cent stake, is the other top beneficiary that is tipped to earn a Sh8.9 billion dividend up from the Sh6.59 billion the previous year. That leaves other owners of the telecoms operator to share Sh6.4 billion up from Sh4.72 billion last year [...]

Safaricom makes data play with 4G-ready TV decoders

Safaricom launched its Internet-enabled TV decoders Friday aiming at the home market with a view to boost revenue generated from data. Dubbed ‘The Big Box’, the 4G-enabled device incorporates data and Pay TV services, with features such as over 30 free-to-air channels, TV recording capability, and USB and SD media playback for pictures, music and videos. Subscribers can purchase the decoder through two payment plans. The first involves a six-month instalment plan, with an initial Sh4,999 followed by Sh999 as monthly installments, the second option requires a one-off payment of Sh9,999 [...]

Broken scanner forces taxman to check tea manually

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has reverted to checking containers manually after a faulty x-ray scanner paralysed business at the port of Mombasa. Tea exports, which were hardest hit by the crisis, will now bypass the scanning exercise. KRA is working towards replacing the faulty parts in the only scanner at the port. Tea dealers export more than eight million kilos weekly, mainly to Egypt, Pakistan and the United Kingdom [...]

Tuskys war intensifies as one sibling disowns new manager

The announcement Monday that owners of retail chain Tuskys had hired a professional to oversee its operations has kicked up a storm after one of the rival sibling camps fighting for control of the supermarket disowned the appointment. On Monday Mr Kago announced that Tuskys, a family business jointly owned by five brothers and two sisters, had for the first time appointed a non-family CEO in the retail chain’s 25-year history to inject professionalism in the business as it prepared to go public [...]

Centum eyes Sh800 billion pension industry with Lamu plant

Listed investment firm, Centum, is urging pension fund managers to consider investing in the $2 billion (Sh192 billion) Lamu coal plant. Construction on the 1050MW power plant, to be developed jointly between Centum and Gulf Energy, is expected to commence in October and become operational four years later. The investment will earn an attractive internal rate of return of 12 per cent on the dollar over the project’s life. It will also be listed as an asset-backed security at the Nairobi Securities Exchange and Centum is already holding discussions with the Retirement Benefits Authority to facilitate participation of pension funds [...]

Pension funds in Kenya reap big from equities

Pension fund managers posted improved returns from equity and offshore markets during the first three months of this year. The latest Alexander Forbes Consulting Actuaries Schemes Survey released yesterday, says 317 pension schemes that participated in the survey control assets worth Sh490.4 billion. The average equity return for all schemes over the year to March 2015 was 23.7 per cent - an increase compared to 18.7 per cent as at December 2014 [...]