How will Safcom shareprice dive affect Equity?

Depending on what you read, Equity lent out between ksh20-35bn of loans for the Safaricom IPO as Kenyans went for margin trading in a big way. Margin trading is attractive for banks especially in an IPO where the shareprice is usually guaranteed to rise on listing as this means that the loan is fully collateralised (covered).

Should the opposite occur (post IPO-price falls below listing price), that is where it gets interesting (or not);

• The loan book: Assuming the system worked perfectly, Equity would have received all the refunds from the 25% oversubscription (I have increased this because Equity lent to Safcom employees who had a much higher subscription), and 2ndly, assuming that the loans were not extended for other purposes, then the loan book that we are concerned with is between ksh5-9bn. Of this, good speculators would have disposed at a profit and paid back their portion-lets assume 20% were able to do this i.e. we now have between ksh4-7bn. Then those who panicked once share started falling so as to avoid having to find the bucks from elsewhere, I'd say another 30%. Thus leaving us with around ksh2.5-4.5bn. Of this, I'd say you have those who are more than happy to pay-off the loan and hold onto the shares for the long-term. This would probably be institutions or the high-net worthy. My estimate of the loan that Equity would effectively have to account for would be around ksh4bn as a worst case scenario. This then its holding in Safaricom. However, do note that is a big assumption to make i.e. that so many investors couldn't find the money to pay their loans. And also that this doesn't represent non-performing loans in the strictest sense of the word.
• Income impact: Equity is likely to see loss of interest and commission from selling Safcom shares. Using Ssem's interest rates, we have ksh0.5bn of lost income. However, the income from Safaricom IPO was always one-off (and hence why many have discounted it for Q3 and Q4).
• Capital impact: In accountancy terms, any unrealised gain or loss on assets never touches your P&L, but goes into your reserves. However, the unrealised gain or loss is counted as part of your capital. Equity would therefore take a hit on its capital equal to the reduction from the ksh5 listing price i.e. ksh1bn if shareprice is ksh4 on 31st of Dec.

Bottomline: Income impact relates to one-off downside, but there is a definite capital hit.