The "too big, please don't fail" banks in Kenya

In this post, I talked about how banks can grow to a size that presents systemic risk to their domestic economies. That is, there are so large, that their likely failure would mean guaranteed govt assistance which would off-course mean every taxpayer peaks up the bill. Further, it was/is my opinion that such banks being deemed to be too large to fail and too expensive to rescue, should have applied to them, more stringent regulatory measures. The examples were higher capital and liquidity requirements to match their size or growth.

So do we have such banks in Kenya? The answer is yes:

1. KCB: At close of play in September 2009, KCB had a balance sheet of Ksh189bn, which si roughly speaking 27% of Kenya's total budget. It also has around 200 branches, 150 of those in Kenya. Thus its a large employer as well. Its collapse won't be pretty. Remedy: At 13%, its tier 1 capital ratio looks strong for versus some Western banks, but its target should be 20% or more given its host economy.
2. Equity: Holds just under 50% of Kenya's banking account population irrespective of the size of their accounts. And has 155 branches (130 of them in Kenya). Its collapse would lead to a severe dislocation SMEs and agriculture for which it serves a significant portion. I see its risk coming from liquidity rather than capital concerns. Remedy: Should be required to hold at least 12% of its assets in form of t-bills and or AAA-rated gilts.
3. BBK: At Ksh170bn (June 2009), its also a behemoth in the local economy. Included here because of its corporate client content which would again cripple our economy were it or the parent to collapse. Remedy: As with KCB, probably more suspect to lower capital thresholds and should thus be required to hold at least 15% tier 1 capital ratio at all times.
4. Co-op: The banker of co-operative societies and Saccos country-wide. And like Equity, therefore, carries systemic risk for the economy. Has a history of appalling size of bad loans coupled with political inteference. Remedy: Higher liquidity and capital requirements. The broker licence was probably a mistake.

Results Catch Up- NSE FTSE half yr

TPS Serena is recovering nicely from a tough 2008 and going by the visa queues at the Kenya High Comm recently, things should continue to improve.

StanChart surprised didn't it with an atypical 38% increase from H1 2008? The bottomline was driven by circa 24% growth in both interest income (and surprisingly nothing to do with govt securities despite the Ksh9bn increase) and F&C as well as flat expenses. In other words strong cost/income ratio. Capital ratios look tight. Still not a buy for me unless for dividend purposes (Ksh2.50 DPS will be paid in early Oct). NBK (an okay 11% uptick) and KCB also released some flat as a pancake PAT. Some high quotient analysis was done on the latter here. BBK's Adan Mohamed had a party after 5% rise on 2008 H1, but a couple of sobering points. Flat costs and vastly reduced loan loss provisions means there should have been a higher rise. But nothing came from the income side of the P&L. Finally, parent bank showed up with 8% rise despite a very challenging environment and did better than its rival clearing banks Lloyds TSB, HSBC. RBS may do better though.

ARM continues to defy high production costs with a 32% yoy increase in profits pegged on turnover growth of 16% and reduction in production costs. It remains despite its small 10% cement market the stock to watch out of the 3 cement sellers and infact one of the good picks from the NSE industrial stocks.

Olympia finally decided to announce its FY 2008 numbers. As expected, it rolled up with a loss though not as high as many of us had forecasted (Ksh56m). I suspect the numbers don't fit. For example, if you strip Ksh1bn for Plush, you leave Olympia where it was before it bought it. Smart...

NSE Banks: Q1 2009 Results

General comment: Across the board, banks have reduced lending from prior quarter. They are basically wanting to avoid additional defaults. YoY quarter profit growth is slim. Peer analysis should mainly focus on outliers:

Good outliers:

• Net interest margin- thanks to the GoK bond, NBK is enjoying healthy interest income without sweat. It'll be on-going for a while yet.
• Cost Income ratio- this is good because it basically translates to a higher return on capital the more you can get from each shillingi you spend. StanChart despite anaemic income growth, has managed (via use of technology) to maintain leadership here.
• Return on capital- both UK banks standout. No real surprise because this is something that tends to be return as a personal development goal for CEOs/FDs of many UK banks.
• Insider loans as prop of loans: Equity stands out for low prop. Insider loans are notorious source of loan book instability for Kenyan banks.
• Excess liquidity ratio: It bears pointing out that Lehman was brought down by lack of liquidity. Stanchart looks really strong. A bit strange given recent report about all banks but Equity struggling for the stuff.
• Capital/RWA ratio: Equity is standout. This ratio can make or break business. It signifies a bank's ability to grow, but also to absorb nasty stuff like loan loss provisions aka bad debt write-offs.

Bad Outliers:

1. NIM- NIC and DTB must be paying over the odds for deposits. I understand this is what prompted NIC to be among the first to loan rates last year.
2. Cost income ratio-KCB's burden. Equity says it is in its investment phase hence the massive increase in staff costs. Keep an eye out.
3. YoY PAT growth- Whats up KCB?
4. Fwd P/E- Given the lowered growth rate for the year, the fwd multiple for 2009 looks too rich for Equity. Ksh10 looks more comfortable until we see what Q3/4 brings in.
5. NPLs as a prop of loans- Equity (perhaps unsurprisingly given target class and seeing K-Rep), is out here. Several pts of note. Several yrs back, I remember a blogger mentioning that Equity recognises NPLs much earlier than other banks. I'll confirm this in another blog. 2ndly, because of its capital capacity, it can still absorb the whole of its NPL fairly comfortably.

NSE Weekly catch up

NSE stayed flat this week as other markets motored forward. Mainly I suspect that Kenyans are not feeling the bourse like prior years. Cash I think is there, but we all need to see a more convincing political and economic forecast. Stock investment is about hope.

FY Results:

Eagads a coffee and tea grower, saw a vast improvement in turnover but also benefited from Ksh20m gain from revaluation to record profit for the year. The cash flow statement looks peculiar to say the least with cash from operations somehow going down by Ksh12m. No dps.

Kenya Orchards, reported a Ksh7m loss for '08 on the back of a Ksh10m operating loss whose detail is not given and 26% decline in turnover. Cash from operations was massively in the red presumably relating to the operating loss issue but overall cash was positive. No dps for the year.

Q1 Results:

KCB opened the Q1 show with a 3% PAT growth on prior yr. I have switched my remaining stake in KCB to AK on the back of results which were a puzzle. Like the fact that annual reports will be emailed to shareholders in future though.

Finally, HFCK is showing the potential one suspected it had. PAT grew by 1.5 times on prior year driven by massive growth in loans. I suspect Kenyans are switching from NSE to real estate in a big way and HFCK has really aligned itself to take advantage of this. Still not sure how Equity intends to help HFCK leverage on its brand and network but this has to be the way forward. HFCK has been very innovative in terms of products and distribution. One of the products out there is its Makao project management which I'd recommend to NRKs.

Rumours:

AK is a takeover target.

Macro:

Its either the supplementary budget got in the way of UK's serious imbibing time or the fruit never falls too far from the tree. Excellent work by MARS though.

FTSE & other markets:

Turned green for the first time this yr yesterday. Risk appetite is back. Dudes are unhappy gettting 1-2% savings rate. Plus depression, swine flu et al have all been overhyped so that when reality hits, there is relief. And this is the result.

Great leakage work by Tim Geithner on the stress tests. The numbers were no different from those reported by FT almost two weeks ago.

KCB Q1 2009 Results- 3% on Q1 2008 plus history

KCB announced Q1 results showing Net Interest Income up 16% driven by the Ksh30bn growth in the loan book; Fees and Comm up 3% as Other Fees fell. Therefore total income increased by 10% compared to the dreadful Q1 2008. Hhhm. Then the story gets even worrying because in a classic BBK scenario, costs went up by 13% hence the shrunk yoy movement in PAT. The other eyebrow raising number was the halving of loan loss provisioning despite that fact the economy is still not out of the woods yet.

Reading its own results commentary, I note that KCB reckons Q1 tends to be a slow quarter. This is not borne by historical results or even by simple accounting. You take the loan amounts multiply by interest rate times the number of days in the quarter (would have an extra day last year) and that should be that. Loans are Ksh30bn higher this quarter compared to last quarter and interest rates don't seem to have moved. Interesting...

I await Equity's and DTB results with interest.

NSE weekly catch up- bear is over

NSE was up 14pts on week at close of play in April and is now up some 25% since its low January signalling bear is behind us.

Results:
This week it was the turn of the insurers. Anybody reported 2008 after Thursday will be doing so in overtime (4mnths after year end), but would in any case not incur any fines.
Kenya Re was up 85% primarily due to some overdue revaluation of its property portfolio. The revaluation is ofcourse a one-off event performed either every year or in most cases every 3 years. The performance has helped caution it from the falls in its equities portfolio. Aside from that, KenRe did grow its underwriting while keeping claims flat over 2007. DPS is 50c some 15c higher than last year. All in all, good job Mrs Mbogo. Looks well shaped for the future. Please stop restating every prior yr's numbers.
Jubilee also rolled in with a weirdly presented set of annual results. PAT is up 10% on prior year driven by higher premiums. Solid insurance company compared to Pan Africa. Strong cash flow.
Express announced PAT down some 32% on last year driven by lower sales I suspect on the back of the slowdown in the economy. The company has been showing some seriously good momentum since its takeover by the Greeks. Cashflow looks a concern as it more than doubled. Negatively. Funnily enough, no dividend was proposed.
Crown Berger reported some Ksh28m PAT for the 2008, down almost 2/3rds clearing feeling the effects of oil costs, the fuel debacle and of course of worsening economy. DPS is Ksh1.
Sasini announced excellent interim numbers with turnover up 57% allowing it to record a profit of Ksh78m compare to a loss last yr. No detail was given on its beverage shops although they seem to be doing well.
KCB became the first bank to report the highly anticipated Q1 earnings and immediately blew my predication out of the water by only managing 5% PAT growth from the dreadful Q1'08.
Announcements: CMA confirmed that 3 brokers are short of cash and therefore won't get their licences for another 3 months. This sort of asymmetrical information remains a big no-no for investors and CMA need to be bright enough to figure out that if it announces 3 unnamed brokers are short of cash, investors will be wary as the 3 brokers will fix the situation by dipping into investors' cash. Eddie Njoroge is new NSE chairman. Nice enough chap, though perhaps not the step change that NSE investors are looking to see.
Macro: Despite my disappointment about the eventual outcome of the HBC issue, looks like many have taken it positively. Medium/long-term we are still in a swamp. Govt finances are in bad shape and now affecting banks' liquidity. All about the economy.
FTSE: In good shape. Pity US bank stress tests won't be announced on Monday as they are keeping some twitchy investors out of the markets. Need to get a move on and the sooner Tim G realises the better markets will perceive him.

Q1 results for NSE Banks

Q1 results will shortly be upon us. In bullish times, you tend to get pretty much every MIMS listed firm releasing some form of quarterly update. However, the opposite applies during these times of the bear. With the exception of banks which have to do so due to their mandate, I expect to see very few quarterly updates. In any case, for the banks, I am predicting near flat results of several banks with the usual exceptions. Loan defaults will be a feature of every earnings release this year from any bank and one should expect nasty surprises on the P&L depending on how well the particular bank has provided for npls so far.

Equity up 40% on Q1 2008 just because it has a bigger loan book compared to last year. I think its Waterloo moment will be Q2 when I can’t see it going higher than its Safaricom quarter of last year. Will start benefit of push in Ug by Q3 and beyond
KCB up 20% though I am expecting it to surprise in a positive way given its larger book vs q1 2008.
NIC, DTB 20% and 40% up respectively.
CFC down on Q1 due to the insurance business. Think link to NSE via its broker as well insurance arm.
BBK and Stanchart-I am expecting one of these to be down on Q1. Only, slightly but down nevertheless.

Intro: Mortgages in Kenya

A mortgage is a loan taken out to buy a house with the house acting as the collateral. This bears repeating. A mortgage is loan just like any other.

Basics:

For the borrowers

Things to consider are;

1. Can you afford a mortgage? A mortgage will rarely ever be less than your monthly rental. By itself. Once you add council rates, utility bills, furnishing, maintainance bills (these will be there whether the boma is new or old), you'll see your monthly costs go up by a third of your rent. So you must look at the likely monthly repayments. Your mortgage repayments will depend on...
2. Price of property: Prices have rocketed in Kenya though the upmarket areas are now seeing a much needed cooling off. I think the key driver was the cash-only buyers primarily remittances and these are already falling off. However, the lower end of the market has sufficient demand to see it continue growing but I doubt we'll ever see the frentic pace in the upmarket areas. Websites that will get you a feel for prices are many but a few are villacare; estates.co.ke; hassconsult; nyumbanet and uzanunua. Many think that there is a bubble in the market and this may well restrict your resell price should there be a marked corection.
3. Your deposit: The higher the deposit you put down, the lower the loan you need to borrow. And of course the lower the amount you want to borrow, the more interest rate options you get. The key criteria is always, are you better off reducing your monthly mortgage repayments compared to earning a return in some other form of investment. Put another way, can you invest the deposit in another venture that gives you more than say the 15% interest rate that you will save by oputting the deposit down? However, its rare in Kenya to get 100% mortgages so some deposit will be required.
4. Interest rates: There are two things you need to know about interest rates generally, the current rate and the future expectations of where interest rates will go. There are two types of interest rate deals that are currently offered in Kenya. Current interest rates are set depending on amount you want to borrow and duration (term) you want to borrow for. Variable interest which basically means that it moves as general interest rates. So future expectations become of added importance. And initially fixed interest rates. I have put together a little table that I'll update from time to time.
5. Monthly repayments: From the above, you should now have the bits that will help you decide what type of house you'll buy based on its monthly/annual cost. You just need to plug the numbers into this Excel equation... = PMT(interest rate/12,term*12,property price less your deposit). Alternatively, go here and input the same numbers to get your monthly payment.
6. Location: This is a feature unique to Kenya where some banks only offer mortgages in specified towns. Reason is obvious.

For the lenders:

Important factors. With mortgages, its as important for the borrower to know what the bank will look for before lending.

1. Income expenditure gap: Most lenders want to know that should they have to or decide to jack up interest rates, there is enough of a gap in your income-expnditure to allow for this. So for example CBA won't allow repauyments that sccount for more than 50% of your monnthly income.
2. Loan to value ratio: aka LTV. Should be no greater than 80% or anticipated price correction at time of appplication.
3. Income mulitples: Simply put this is the ratio of your annual gross salary to mortgage amount required. Prudence dictates that this shouldn't be more than 4 times.
4. Screening reqquirements: Many banks tend to have more onerous requirements when they want to reduce lending and vice versa when they want to increase it.
5. Other mortgage set up costs: These are noticeably higher in Kenya and include stamp duty, legal, processing fees et al.

Final point.

• Take a mortgage to suit your stage in life. If you are young or have a young family, you'll surely be making a move to another house at sometime in your life. Therefore, consider a mortgage as you'd any other investment. Without getting emotional.
• Late edit: If you are in the diaspora, avoid if you can, taking a mortgage in Kenya and if you already have one, exchange it. The difference in interest rates is just too big especially now. Instead, borrow from a local bank at a lower interest rate and buy the property or pay off your Kenyan loan. Kama ni makaratasi, find somebody who can do this in exchange for your title deed and an agreement.

BTW: the word mortgage is of French origin and literally means dead pledge.

Kenya Listed Banks: Comparison of 2008 Results

• An almost positive correlation between low cost/income ratio and high EPS.
• Return on capital is a bit of a misnomer as it sometimes represents unspent capital e.g. Equity and thin capitalisation (StanChart and BBK).
• Tell me how BBK and Equity have similar proportions of NPL to loans and such a difference in terms of LLPs for 2008. Wonder what Co-op is upto- it actually reduced its loan loss porivision in 2008, yet it has the highest proprtion of bad loans. I am assuming some of this is historic...
• Some banks lent out a lot in 2008-a proportion of these loans may turn bad if economy doesn't recover in '09.
  
• Fwd P/E of 6.3 shows Equity has among the cheapest bank stocks at the NSE today. Will wait for it to drop once spilt is effected. And KCB and DKB are cheaper too.

NSE weekly catchup: some good news

The good news is that stocks are getting cheap at the NSE. Better news is they may yet get much cheaper-Nigerian banks P/Es are half for those of Kenyan banks. Sadly, the brokers just don't know what time of the day it is. How does this answer the fears of investors who know brokers are broke (but how broke?), and if they could eat when commissions were rolling in will not spare any investors’ cash? Saying you are going to do what you had said you were going to do in 2007 doesn't constitute change. If somebody knows you are likely to partake in what is not yours, it requires changes to this particular habit for them to be convinced into dealing with you...That or you move away. Bob Matthews now in the frame . NK next week? One of the more …suggestions I’ve heard is for GoK to do a bail-out of the NSE. Please, we have IDPs sleeping rough, 10m starving. So how do us investors (who can spare some cash to invest), get in front of the queue?

Full Year Results:
KCB was prudent on loan loss provisioning. And it seems like it’s been prudent about Triton and may have taken Ksh1bn (my assumption is that its Ksh1bn and not Ksh2.2bn originally mentioned) into the P&L. Viewed in this light, I have even a stronger supposition that BBK has not been prudent with its LLPs. KCB showed its strength by the fact that it still managed 40% on 2007. Other good things of note is the flat staff costs meaning that cost income ratio (if you remove Triton from the equation) remains on a downward path. KCB’s DPS is Ksh1. Equity>DTB>KCB>NIC>Stanchart>Co-op>BBK remains my bank share preference order at the NSE.
Bamburi- PAT down 11% due to a one-off hit for an insurance claim of Ksh1bn. Otherwise, gross profit was up 10% on a 24% turnover growth. Numbers are steady and as per expected and Bamburi also has supportive cash flows. DPS of 2.80 will be paid in July for those in books on 27th March.
East Africa Portland made a Ksh400m loss due to the Japanese loan (turnover was up 8%). Probably one of the worst run listed firms-it has had this loan since 2004 with attendant volatility in P&L and nobody has figured out how to deal with it…
BAT-PAT up 23% and the final Ksh12.50 DPS will be paid in April. Tempting but no tobacco for me.

Interims:
KenGen had a torrid 1st half of the year and now trades below IPO another crucial pointer to where we are at. Revenue was up 40% but was undermined by fuel costs going up 3times to Ksh4.7bn (oil prices were lower but it required more due to low water levels). PAT was down 33% therefore not a recoverable position.
KPLC-Excellent 53% growth in PAT supported by strong revnues (though Ksh1bn is fuel recoveries i.e opposite of KenGen). DPS will remain small however because of the preferred shares. Looks good for FY.
Carbacid also reported 31% growth in profits on strong sales. The share remains suspended which is a nonsense really.


FTSE:
Barclays had upward momentum after HSBC's exploratory announcement of a rights issue, but then came back down (thankfully for me), once Lloyds TSB confirmed the bad numbers at HBOS and that it still hadn't agreed to pay a fee for gova to take its toxic.

Macroview:
In 1963, Kenya had a population 8.9million. Today it’s circa 40m; by 2030 it’ll probably be around 60million. And we still lack urgency?
Last word: To Obama, verily I say unto you, the bitterest medicine is the most portent. We are all socialists now. Americans need to join the party. Sharpish.

Credit Crunch: according to a banking regulator

Interesting take on the recent happenings and the way forward by Lord Turner who has recently taken over as Chair of the UK FSA. One of the reasons risk must become a big issue for bankers is not because of their new found risk aversion. Rather, it must be the realisation that the search for beta will lead to slippery slopes. Another of his ideas is how banks should take on more regulatory capital during the boom times and do the reverse during the recession period.

KCB's actions continue to confuse many who recall its former days with unfond memories. Its deal with Triton especially the last loan makes no commercial sense. Only political sense...

KCB-Triton: even more unanswered questions

So KCB has decided to settle out of court.

1. So are we taxpayers footing Ksh7bn and foregoing another Ksh2bn owed to KRA? Yani a third of what our Ksh18m SUV-driving corrupt ministers were begging for on Friday.
   
2. In the meantime, Devani can arrange his next Ksh300m party. A nice % of what our criminally-low paid teachers are asking for?
   
3. What did happen to the 126m litres of oil? Did Triton employees drink it?
   
4. KCB-apparently has a credit risk committee that meets twice a month. To play golf and review the odd Ksh0.9bn loan here and there. Every bank has what are called credit limits for each of its loan officers. So a loan of this amount would almost certainly have required some senior authorisation. So why were juniors sent home?
   

NSE weekly catch up: signs of maturing bourse

NSE eased down towards the latter part of the week and continues hoevering at 3,400 level ahead of the results season which should kick off in earnest in the first week of Feb. We might have a small rally towards 4,000 before easing back in April.

CMC released its results for its financial year which closed in September (btw, I always thought that the NSE/CMA vigorously enforce the 3 month window for results announcement). Kenyans are still buying cars. PAT was up 50% helped by a strong jaw effect (revenue-27% growing much faster than costs-6.2%). CMC has 18% of the mwananchi car market, so I am assuming it derives most of its revenue from higher market share in buses and tractors. I don't see it having as strong a year in 2009 given macroevents. DPS went up to Ksh0.45 equating to a 3% dividend yield at close of play on Friday-okay for a growth company. Books for the dividend close end of Jan.. .

KCB's share price seems to have gotten away with just small scratches despite its debacle with Triton. However, Africa Alliance downgraded its earnings outlook for 2009 by 36%! About the maturing NSE, this was first time in a while that live news transmitted to instant price changes so transaprently.

Macro: Kenyan analyst confirmed the lower growth expectations for 2009. We are sending a huge delegation to watch tv in the US while appealing for food aid.

LUSE remains weak and subdued.

FTSE: Short selling is back as of yesterday and banks took a terrible pasting as short sellers flooded in in earnest. The other reason is that credit crunch is now on mainstreet with job losses feeding into bad debs. And Bank of America has this week discovered that it bought the wrong bank.

Political loans are Kenya's equivalent of sub-prime mortgages

Similarities:
They make no economic rationale. If the bet goes wrong, the lender has no leg to stand on.
They are driven by greed (of borrowers and lenders alike)
They end up costing the tax payer
Their collateral is a mirage i.e. it doesn't really exist
They are lent to borrowers who won't ordinarily get any loans
Banks don't learn. KCB just had a case with Mugoya the other day. Remember warehouses that had been cleaned up?

Differences:
One type of loan involves coercion. I can't decide which

Why Triton stole and unanswered questions

Having read through the stories in the daily (I think DN has done a very good job so afr on this oil story), one can conclude that:

1. The loan that KCB is running after is considerably higher than the Ksh2bn that is out there. As DN makes clear today, this was based on a KPC estimate of the import price at Ksh60*126m litres. But remember that prices during this period (and the period seems to be almost 9 months) were alot higher, so its better to use say Ksh90. That means that KCB share of the loan now goes up to Ksh3bn. The questions, given volatile oil prices, how does KCB (1) value its loans (2) keep up with the collateral needs for such loans?
2. Triton stole the oil because it wanted to create an artificial shortage so that prices would temporarily go up allowing it to make money or breakeven on its omporting prices.
3. Its still not clear why KPC was not the one importing the oil. Why?
4. The collateral agreements are not agreements. It is merely a process and one that can easily be breached. A collateral agreement always has a clause that in effect makes you the guarantor. Is KPC (and by extension GoK) the guarantor of these loans?
5. MTNs-when did they become legal financial instruments in Kenya? Is CMA aware?

Setting up bank branches in the West just got harder

Up until the latest economic crisis in Kenya engendered by the events of January yesteryear, several banks were thinking of having small operations in the UK or in the US to tap into the diaspora. In theory, I didn’t think this was necessary. I for example never needed to go to Kenya to open my online bank account with Equity. However, KCB had for example explored this seriously and Equity is apparently thinking of doing so in Baltimore (?).

Time for a re-think...

From October, any UK-based has to in effect be self-sufficient in terms of liquidity. Other nations will also follow suit. What does this mean? In addition to the fairly onerous capital commitment, banks operating in all G10 and other signatories to Basel 2 will in effect have to demonstrate that in normal and stressed situations, their operations can withstand any cash flow requirements either to hand or from funding that is easily accessible. Sounds simple but one thing the regulators don’t want to hear is that especially in periods of stress, your operations will be dependant on parent bank to provide liquidity. The credit crunch has demonstrated that this doesn’t happen (Iceland banks, Lehman Brothers all swiped cash into home territory as soon things went pear-shaped).

You in effect need to demonstrate that this will be a stand alone banking business...

2008 Investing Highlights

This was me end of June, this is me today:

Kenya
Sold: In the money (NMG, TPS, ARM, NIC) & Out of the money (BBK, EA Cables)

Reduced: KCB

Switched to: Equity, Cash

Hold: Equity, AK, miniscule KCB (2,500 shares) & Safcom & Cash

TZ
Bought: Dar es salaam Community Bank

Zambia
Bought: Pamodzi Hotel

Theme has been to move from diversification of risk to concentration of gains. Has it worked? Yes and would have been even more fruitful if I had kept to one of my golden rules of never adding more shares unless the price of the said stock is lower than my average cost so far. I got punished for buying AK at Ksh33.50 thus driving my average for it to early 20s and Equity at Ksh301 and Ksh250 thus driving average to mid 120s.

Overall for the year: average i.e. below 30% gain. Had to rush out of BRIC nations just to stay in the money and NSE has been so-so but thankfully my offloads were all in July/Aug time.

Other investment decisions:
Good ones: Missed out on SIB’s private placement. Having opened a trading account and just about to send the funds to buy some shares at Ksh120, I once more request ed a copy of its accounts. Still not received even today. In the meantime, I now hear that the initial placement failed and subsequently the shares were retailing at ksh30!
Tough ones: After sweating to set up the investment club, I decided to move on because of strategic differences. So why I my still blogging as KCIG? Investment club changed its name.
Bad ones: Hesitated when was Equity was Ksh116…

Investing resource: Thanks Aly Khan for the live prices streaming. Some of my last minute price adjustments relied on the live feed.

Key learnings: Self-discipline, early bird mentality and thereafter liquidity and investors confidence are the key ingredients that turn good company/market fundamentals into investor bounty.

NSE catch up: Co-op lands makes a splutter

A mild short week at the bourse with all eyes now on Feb/March results season. It was thus a good time for Co-op to list. Funny games as always. The stock was under-subscribed and the minute it lands, you have investors buying Ksh11, 10 i.e. above the Ksh9.50 price. Does it make sense? As mentioned last week, real price will be discovered in the next two months as the immobilised (exchanged from certificates) shares find their way into the market. Most were bought or valued at the equivalent of Ksh1.10 earlier this year...

In other news, NIC is going into TZ. It has put in a bid to acquire 51% of Savings & Finance, a medium sized bank in TZ. A word about TZ banks. Most tend to belong either to community groups or certain locales. They therefore rarely have the extensive branch network that one will see with Kenyan banks (only three have more than 10 branches). S&F only has 3 branches but these are in the main towns. NIC becomes the 3rd Kenyan bank to step into TZ after DTB and KCB.

The battle for the Mutomo coal deposits continues. Why do investments such as these which will provide much-needed employment take so long to get off the ground?

And finally: Xmas away from Kenya tends to be a fairly downbeat affair especially when as I did I spoke to relas back home who were just finishing some mutura. So its just as well that Mr & Mrs Muiru have made sure Kenyans can at least get some of their favourite foodstuffs locally via their Wahu Foods shop. Wishing them much success...

NSE Update- technical hitch gives way to bounce

The NSE was a one way bet, until the "technical hitch" on Thursday. Even the papers had the quotation marks around the technical hitch. Equity for example had 1 share in demand for every 8 suppplied on Wednesday. On Thursday after the " ", the ratio was the almost the same but opposite. For Equity, this sounds okay given it had just announced very good results, but AK, KCB, EABL and others didn't announce their results on Thursday. 2ndly yesterday was a surprise, because although Equity announced its results on Thursday morning, the 10% rule was lifted yesterday. In any case, my take is the two days rise was aimed at Co-op IPO and investors (as opposed to speculators/traders), should eiether step in slowly or wait for a full week of solid volume rises.

Results announced in the last week:
KCB- up 69% yoy driven by strong F&C and strong jaw effect between costs and income. Flat vs. Q2.
DTK-up but can't locate its results
KQ-down 63% yoy, but a commendable perfomance in respect of growing revenue in the first half despite everything. It must get its customer service and hedging right to recover. Really needs a new CEO.
ARM-up 15% yoy on similar turnover growth. Cash flow a bit stronger after loan.
Equity- up 277% yoy for the 9 months driven by Safcom IPO and Ksh0.2m higher than my forecasted fall from Q2.
HFCK-up 36%, Equity has a 20% stake and is in my view, unlikely to take a bigger chunk of HFCK for the time being.

Elsewhere, EA Cables appointed James Mworia, a young guy from TC as its new CEO (apparently).

Kenya Listed Banks: First Half 2008

Update from this and this. I've removed CFC Stnabic because their numbers don't make sense i.e. no restatements as required.

Some stocks are very cheap. Notice KCB's PE is half that of Equity and then think where both will be at the end of 2009...Supply, number and calibre of investors who hold either stocks may have played a role, but fundamentals have also influenced.

Although I normally invest on fundamentals, this article reflects some of the thinking around some of the stuff I've done so far in this 2nd half of 2008. The world of investing is changing...