Mashada Blogs » December 21, 2007

bankelele: Equity Bank EGM

2007-12-21T22:40:00-05:00

Equity Bank held an Extraordinary general meeting on Friday December 21, 2007 in the KICC Amphitheatre. The meeting started 45 minutes late as shareholders were treated to almost a whole CD of the greatest hits Boney M. The hall never filled up, and it started at about 10:40 a.m.

The Bank Chairman Mr. Peter Munga, invited a Chaplain to say a prayer, after which he introduced members of the board of the Bank and legal and transaction advisors (Kaplan & Stratton, Pricewaterhousecoopers, Ernst&Young) in attendance. The Managing Director, Dr. James Mwangi then introduced several of the top managers of the Bank who were present.

The Company Secretary then confirmed that there was a quorum and proceeded to read the notice for the meeting. However after completing the first of three resolutions (took about two minutes), the Chairman interrupted her and asked if, in the interest of time, all shareholders had read and were aware of the resolutions. We confirmed - and the meeting proceeded on without a full reading.

The MD then gave a brief talk about the proposal to sell 25% of the Bank to Helios Partners. He said Equity had been growing at about 100% a year and now wished to expand into other countries in Africa. They had sought and now found the right partner to finance that growth and with networks & expertise to manage the new ventures. Helios would get two director seats, and may add more funds if the need arose.

The 11 billion capital injection from Helios would also ensure compliance with prudential ratios, increase lending capacity, and allow further necessary investment in IT .

sweetener for shareholders: the MD told shareholders, that though their individual stakes would be diluted by 25%, the net asset value of their shares would increase from 11.9 shilling per share to 39.4 shilling per share. And though shares were diluted, Helios would not take part in the 2007 dividend

Shareholders questions
There’s gentleman called Mr. Alois Chami who owns shares in just about every listed company in the country and is a fixture at all AGM’s – known to all company chairman. Normally he’s a bit of a windbag, but today he acquitted himself with his frank questions.

Chami at a previous AGM

Before answering him, the MD complemented Chami as one of the few shareholders who took up the company invitation to inspect the transaction documents at the headquarters

Chami asked;
- Who was exempt - all shareholders or Helios? – as the governor of the central bank and the minister of finance gave differing interpretations
MD answered - Only Helios is exempted. Helios is a partnership fund investing in the bank, while Kenyan law only recognizes individual or companies as investors. Also said that existing directors continued to be bound by their non-sale agreement till July 2008.
- What does exemption mean?
Kaplan lady lawyer confirmed that applied only to Helios partnership and would not venture further
- No other bank has that exemption, why?
others may look at the exemption and see a political angle, but it was just a business decision made by the central bank
-Does management have capacity to utilize capital?
- management had the competence, bank has been growing at 100%
Why invest in housing finance (Equity has bought 25%), a sinking ship? Why not Equity own mortgage company?
Equity saw housing finance as a turnaround opportunity, bought at 18, now at 40 shilling a share and performance will be better as together they will provide affordable housing finance solutions to Kenyans

Shareholders vote
Since Mr. Chami was the only shareholder with questions, the resolutions were put to the floor and were passed in quick succession, with the first two being straightforward to;

(1) Increase share capital
(2) Allot new shares to Helios
(3) But the third amended articles of association of the bank; in addition to the usual modernization resolutions e.g. allowing tele-conferencing, also had some unusual ones like if shareholder is non-responsive for six years, company may sell those shares and keep the proceeds, made it more difficult for directors to amend dividend policy, business plan or budget (all but one must approve any change)

Edit - One of the Helios managing directors, Mr Babatunde Soyoye, was invited to the podium and he briefly spoke about the new pan-African partnership that the Bank would venture into next.

The Chairman then invited director Dr. Julius Kipngetich (also head of Kenya Wildlife Services) to give a vote of thanks. He thanked the shareholders and assured them that "stick with Equity, and we will make you rich", customers (now heading towards 2 million customers by January) suppliers (for world class service) Board of directors (best in the country) management staff (ordinary people doing extraordinary things) transaction advisers, and media (for good coverage even as Equity remained misunderstood)

Finally the Chairman thanked shareholder saying they were now richer than when they came in.

Goodies: tea and snacks outside, while all shareholders got a toe bag with Bank brochures and souvenirs book

Kenya Imagine: The hero myth: Nelson Mandela

2007-12-21T22:38:00-05:00

It is unlikely that this will be the first time that you are hearing this. It is not going to be the last time either. Mankind it seems is always looking for a hero, and on finding such a one determined to defend him against all reason.

As such essays go, my arguments must be prefaced with admiration for Nelson Mandela, for his untiring efforts at charity work, his voice of reason against the venal, poisonous global war empire and most of all for his guardianship of South Africa from the tyranny of apartheid and into majority rule - or as many insist on saying, independence.

Read on as Stephen Wanyama assesses the world's obsession with celebrities and the status it gives to our leaders.

bankelele: Bank Review '07: Part III

2007-12-21T22:33:00-05:00

Middle of the pack

20. (20) Fina Bank: Estimated assets of 7.6 billion ($108 million) and profits of 90 million shillings ($1.3 million), with growth of about 20% from a year ago. Opened upcountry branches in Kenya (Nakuru, Mombasa, and Eldoret) and will start branches in Uganda next year, bridging the Fina to their existing Rwanda operations.

19. (22) Family Bank: Estimated assets of 9 billion and profits of 220 million in 2007. Known as Equity Blue, it has enjoyed similarly rapid growth (though slightly less this year) since converting from a building society to a bank. It has followed Equity's footsteps, applying for the same exemptions granted to Equity - such early as admission to the clearing house and permission to issue chequebooks. It has also opened branches at a fast rate and its paperless banking model and women-entrepreneur loan models are a hit with rural Kenyans. But, in the year in which they converted to a Bank, they also lost their long serving CEO over board dispute and got sued by a Central Bank official who their Chairman had accused of being corrupt.

18. (18) EABS: Estimated assets of 9 billion and profits of 15 million. Teething pains continue at the former building society which converted to a bank three years ago, and had growth of about 5% in 2007.

17. (17) Housing Finance : Estimated assets of 10.5 billion and profit of 120 million, with loans 15% up from a year ago but assets only 2%. The bank tried to merge with Development Bank of Kenya, and later raise cash in a rights issue, but both plans were scuttled by regulators; later the board signed to sell a 25% stake to Equity Bank. HFCK and S&L (owned by KCB) are still major players in the mortgages sector which is becoming a crowded field with newer entrants Stanbic and Standard Chartered. HF also lost a class action lawsuit filed by customers over illegal bank charges.

16. (19) Bank of India: Estimated assets of 11 billion and profit of 500 million for quiet bank that grew at about 25%. Does a lot of India related business and Kenya government securities.

15. (16) Imperial Bank: Estimated assets of 11.5 billion and profits of 600 million. In 2007, the bank grew about 40% as it launched shariah banking, asset finance, children’s accounts and opened new branches at the coast.

14. (14) Bank of Baroda: Estimated assets of 14.9 billion and profit of 600 million for quiet bank that grew at about 25% and does a lot of Kenya government securities investing. It has been in Kenya for 52 years

13. (15) Prime Bank : Estimated assets of 15 billion and profits of 350 million. The fast growing bank will consolidate with affiliate Prime capital company by year end leading to a much larger bank in 2008.

12. (11) Investment & Mortgages: Estimated assets of 30 billion and profits of 1.3 billion. Fast growing bank also diversified into shariah banking, custodial services and also acquired two new euro bank shareholders.

11. (12) Diamond Trust : Estimated assets of 31 billion and profits of 950 million. In 2007 the bank grew about 45% as it opened several new branches, had a second rights issue in less than a year and also acquired a majority stake in Diamond Trust Tanzania.

10. (8) NIC: Estimated assets of 34 billion and profit of 1.1 billion. The bank grew at about 30% in 2007. It had a rights issue, rewarded shareholders with a bonus, went into custodial and investment banking (acquiring a stockbrokerage firm). But the market leader in asset finance also faced increased competition from other banks in this field and was dropped from NSE share index in favour of ICDCI.

9. (5) Citibank Kenya: Estimated assets of 38 billion and profit of 1.9 billion shillings. Otherwise a flat year for the bank whose parent faced her own troubles in the US banking meltdown. Growth was about 5% as the bank got into the local IPO advisory races.

8. (6) Commercial Bank of Africa: Estimated assets of 40 billion and profit of 1.4 billion. Growth of 9% from a year ago got into unit trusts, home loans, insurance, and funding of women projects. Similar to CFC and would be prime candidate for a merger.

7. (7) National Bank of Kenya: Estimated assets of 45 billion ($645 million) and profit of 1.4 billion shillings ($20 million) for 2007. NBK finally had its most of its non- performing portfolio debt albatross sorted out with a government bailout in the form of bonds maturing over the next 10 years. Now that its cleaned up, it could once again be a target of Stanbic again who two years ago offered to buy out NSSF’s 48% after their CFC merger is done in 2008 (Equity Bank is a also long shot). During the year, NBK partnered with Standard investment bank offer stockbroking services through NBK branches and also tried to have businessman Ketan Somaia jailed over an unpaid debt to the bank

Jobs

- Chase Bank; Head of ICT, senior manager operations, head of trade finance. apply by snail mail to the Head of HR 28987-00200 by 29/2
- Cabin crew at Emirates airlines
- Fina Bank Uganda: The bank is starting operation in Uganda in January 2008, and those interested in working there should send detailed CVs to hr@finabank.com.
- tough job - Head of marketing & corporate communications at Kenya Airways apply online by 15/1

Kikuyumoja's realm: Kenya 2.0 logo mashup

2007-12-21T19:27:36-05:00

A post over at Ory’s Realm inspired me to create the following mashup of logos as used by the registered (Kenyan) political parties for the upcoming elections. All logos were copied 1:1 from a publication available online (PDF, 1.6 MB) from the ECK website and the listing isn’t complete as not all parties published their logo in time.

different sizes available @ flickr

As with other smart online content, this mashup work (not the logos themselves) comes with a (CC) Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported licence, meaning you are free to share and remix it as long as you don’t use it for commercial purposes (as I am also not gaining anything by publishing this except maybe for visitors which results in Google AdSenSe increases, but that’s another story). THIS ALSO INCLUDES YOU, dear KenyaTimes ;-)

Seriously, it was great fun copying the logos into one big sheet and seeing how some are really well done while others are…well….judge for yourself.

Using logos instead of just names in a country where the illiteracy rate is still high enough makes sense. But then, also, the most important reason seems to be that there are so many parties with similar names and since most of us humans are visually orientated, I think it’s much easier this way.

p.s.: my favourite logo is the Kikombe one - such brilliant artistic skills! Oh, and btw: logo = symbol [sihm-booohlll]

Marian's Blog: Celia: Lynching a 19 yr old enslaved mother; 21 Dec 1855, Fulton, Missouri

2007-12-21T15:36:56-05:00

Today marks one hundred and fifty-two years since the Friday, 21 December execution by hanging of Celia. She was an enslaved 19 year-old, a Black American single mother whose crime in the state of Missouri was to have killed Robert...

AfriGadget: Africa’s Modular machines Continued: Saws

2007-12-21T09:38:39-05:00

This is a continuation of Erik’s post on African Modular machines.

The video below shows how the machines are used in wood workshops to make design cutouts, carve out pieces for furniture and to split planks of wood. It is essentially the same machine pieces, motor, pulleys and frame, just customized for different uses. The customization is done in a small industry locally known as Jua Kali or Gikomba, where entrepreneurs like Mr. John Chege purchase them for use in small workshops like this.

When playing the video, please mute it, there is lots of noise from the machines.

(more…)

You Missed This: Are Ugenya and Rarieda Constituencies Slipping Between ODM's Fingers?

2007-12-21T08:49:00-05:00

Following the ODM nomination fiascos, on December 10, 2007 at 1:14 pm, this was my comments at Raila07 Wordpress Blog:

"Thank you for this thread Blog Admin. One important voting block that you guys are assuming is ‘in the pocket’ is Luo Nyanza.

Having spent the last one week touring Ugenya and Rarieda, I can tell you for a fact hat unless the pentagon takes its campaigns on the ground in these areas, James Orengo and Dr. Gumbe are facing a very embarassing parliamentary defeats at the hands of Steve Mwanga in Ugenya and Raphael Tuju in Rarieda. In Ugenya, I fail to understand why this highly popular young man known as Steve Mwanga has been let loose in Ugenya. In all honesty, his three year development record is far beyond what the likes of Orengo and Ondiek have done in 30 years. To make matters worse, Mwanga is ‘blessed’ with an bottomless source of cash, and ti appears local ODM officials have got no counter campaign strategy to beat this. This Mwanga man is only 32 years old and although we alll have our doubts about the sustainability of his development projects, most of the villagers (including youth and women) are convinced he is the man to take to parliament. My own opinion is that the pentagon needs to pull Mwanga to one-side and ask him to bid his ptime on parlimentary ambitions and instead support Orengo because age is on his side and James Orengo will be of great value in parliament to ODM than Steve Mwanga. This is a serious issue that might require the ODM pentagone to pitch camp in Ugenya for day or more, otherwise that seat is as good as a gone (and what makes me sick is that he is winning on a KADDU ticket!).

The story is Rarieda is not any different. Tuju’s ‘development’ record is something all villagers in Rarieda are extremely proud of. In as much as they appreciate that they are required to support Raila’s candidature for president, they feel they are not obliged to vote for Dr. Gumbe and reject their own Tuju. This is an area where the ODM needs to visit and sell the importance of having an ODM MP otherwise, Dr. Gumbe, on his own, stands no chance in going to parliament against Raphael Tuju. The moral of this story is that the ODM pentagon has avoided campaigning in Luo Nyanza under the pretext that the voters of Luo Nyanza have granted permission to Raila to seek votes elsewhere. What Nonsense. If you guys dont believe me, the wait for results on 28th December and you will realise for the first time that we have PNU, KADDU, ODM-K and KANU MPs in Luo Nyanza. And that will be repeated in the civic polls too because, most people at the grassroot are against the proposed 3-piece voting system. Please ask the pentagon to do something AS A MATTER OF URGENCY!"

Today, just a few hours after Raila Odinga visited the constituency to campaign for Orengo an aide to Orengo was reportedly killed as campaign violence rocked Ugenya constituency.

With just a week to the elections date, this appears to be a tricky endeavour for the ODM presidential candidate because for the party to fulfill most of its pre-election pledges, some of which have a time frame within which to accomplish, the party will require not just numbers in parliament but individuals well versed in parliamentary and constitution making procedure. My proposals to the party candidate were not to undermine the constitutional right of the Ugenya people but to appreciate the national needs of the country.

Raila has to contend with not just campaigning for local MPs, he also has his own presidential campaign to look after as well as a minor threat in his Langata constituency in the name of an "alliance of convenience" known as Livondo-Ndura.

The issue of three-piece voting whereby a voter casts their ballots in favour of the civic, parliamentary and presidential candidates from the same political party are also a headache not just for ODM but also for PNU. It seems voters are very clear about what they want and the next parliament will have many unexpected MPs.

You Missed This: Mupende Musipende, Kamlesh (Paul) Pattni Is Already In The 10th Parliament

2007-12-21T06:16:00-05:00

…And He Could Bt The Next Official Leader Of The Opposition

Kamlesh Pattni, now known s brother Paul Pattni is believed to have been the main architect behind the multi-billon shilling Goldenbeg scam. Other tycoons who committed lesser evils like Ketan Somaia are now behind bars but Pattni continues to defy all odds and is now set to be a member of the 10th parliament.

Part of the reason why the man is not behind bars is because he is extremely intelligent and appears to have too much on former President Moi and his hand in Goldenberg.

So how is Pattni going to find his way into parliament even if he does not win a parliamentary seat? Actually Kenda is set to win a number of parliamentary seats countrywide and Pattni will have an opportunity to nominate not only himself but quite a number of other characters into the August house. It all depends on the number of seats that he will win and all signs are that his extremely well financed KENDA political party is going to win quite a number of seats.

Read more

You Missed This: My Mother’s Vote

2007-12-21T06:14:00-05:00

At this time of the year, we all talk to our folks.

My Dad’s presidential vote looks like it is headed in Kibaki’s direction who he sees as the lesser evil of the 3 main candidates. The fascinating thing is that my step mother’s vote was headed in the same direction until the hot slap of the 12th of the December by Lucy Kibaki.

She says; “I hate to think what I would have done and felt if it was my husband being slapped. And to make matters worse in this case, his wife and children were present. And the man is a Mkamba like us. There is no way Kibaki is seeing my vote now.”

My Dad doesn’t think the slap is a big issue.

Mrs Kumekucha is voting Raila and has ignored all pleas from her brothers and sisters in the house of Mumbi who are rabidly Kibaki and very much anti-Mujaruo. Let me remind you that it was Mrs Kumekucha who said months back that it would take a major miracle and divine intervention for Raila Odinga to be elected president.

But I am happy to report that the various different political views in the family do NOT affect the way we relate. We respect each other’s views.

If I make it back home to vote, I will share with all of you exactly how I vote and why.

Afromusing: We speak email they speak p.o.box

2007-12-21T04:55:30-05:00

It is 6 days to election day in Kenya. Kenyanpundit has been giving a glimpse of the atmosphere in Nairobi; Read more here, here and here.

I spoke with a young web designer by the name of Amanya about his thoughts on the presidential candidates and their commitment to ICT in Kenya. A few minutes into the conversation i decided to record it, and he was gracious enough to let me. In the video, Amanya points out the disconnect between the leaders and the youth. The fact that the youth have embraced technology and internet, yet the leaders are still talking about polytechnics which provide skills training but not the computer literacy needed to compete in the age of globalization and digital pervasiveness.
You might notice that while i was talking to him he had a cellphone, with which he was checking his email

Just to give you some context, if you send an email to the Kenyan government, business or otherwise, you will also need to send a certified business letter by dhl or messenger. Even then it takes a very long time for them to get back to you.