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.

NIC so-so, KRe good upside for H1'08

In a way its good because those that disappoint are being compensated by those that surprise. NIC disappointed because KCB had a very good half (I tend to look at the base from which the company has coming from). Lakini when you look at the recent steps, you realise that a smaller branch network will hurt a bank when there is a liquidity crunch.

KRe, I expected worse results because of having to cover-off Jan/Feb claims, but it looks like its come away unscathed. Fundamentally, it looks like a business that was just looking for solid management. At current price, the share is clearly good value.

A short history of Kenyan IPOs: Lessons and reminiscences

KCB: Listing price Ksh20 in 1988. Suffice to say that if you were shareholder in 1988,you most likely would have lost your hair but made good evenutally as the stock is KSh24 (after many rights, additional divestures and spilts). Was the 1st GoK privatisation.
NBK: Listing price Ksh10 in 1994. Even with a 2nd GoK divesture in 1996, has posted 400% returns for IPO investors despite its dismal perfomance profits-wise. Thanks Jimnah.
Kenya Airways: Listing price Ksh11.25 in 1996. Its IPO was the Safaricom of its day and has salutary lessons for us all. Its listing in 1996 saw 110,000 new investors (was a huge number in those days) and was the first by an African Airline. Within no time and helped by Goldenberg, drought and moi-economics, the economy was in ICU. KQ's shares went down to KSh6 andwere stuck there for a spell. Investors slashed their wrists and vowed never again until KenGen IPO came along.
KenGen: Listing price Ksh11.90 in 2006. This IPO ushered the new era of NSE complete with CDSC accounts, investors increasing to 500k+ and was the first IPO I took part in. Perhaps due to the absence of IPOs for along-time, lessons were learned by all
                
                  *Don't make IPO a free-for-all, you'll end up high investor expenses from annual reports, AGMs and                     the like
                   *Share price will stagnate due to liquidity glut
                  * Do price it low
                  *Every investor will see profits and jump, cue oversubscriptions and interest-rate earning for brokers

ScanGroup: Listing price Ksh10.45  in 2006. With lessons learned, guys jumped and made a mint (some 300%). The share still has way too many investors. I have cashed out after getting frustrated about the stagnant price.
Everready: Listing price Ksh9.50 in 2006. A lemon among the recent IPOs. And most knowledgeable investors new it before it listed and thus went in for speculative purposes. Its high lasted a month before plummeting below IPO price where it has refused to come away from. I sold at around KSh18 for one my cdsc account and was flat on another due to lax broker nonsense.
Access Kenya: Listing price Ksh10 in 2007. Although I've made more money from others, this one I am enjoying because it has something of a schedenfraude about it. Firstly, many trashed it on the basis of the forthcoming fibre optic and Telkom's takeover by French Telecom. Secondly, the upside is so huge that I won't be surprised if it reaches mid 30s by next year. Beyond that, it's all about how well it adapts to increased competition, but I am sure it will.
Kenya Re: Listing price Ksh9.50 in 2007. Companies were now wise to the ways of retail investors and restricted their participation. This has ensured that the upside seen in the share has stayed as institutional investors are long-term. But will that last if KRe doesn't change its pre-IPO ways and given this Jan/Feb claims? I am still holding a small portion though I may dispose once I get a dividend for 2007.
Safaricom: Listing price Ksh5.00 in 2008. I hope many can see a pattern emerging in all the preceding IPOs. So judge Safcom as you'd any other share. That way, you'll invest on the basis of its fundamentals which will either look strong or weak. If you think it's strong, why buy for speculative purposes only to go for it later when it might have doubled in value? If you think its weak, then you better review your exit strategy once you know the allocations and especially for the QII and foreign investors. As well as the cabinet composition. If either or both has  massively oversubscribed and cabinet is kosher, you are in the money . And out of the money if v.v.

Results Update

BBK announced frankly disappointing looking numbers and will be the worst among the listed banks (blog on this later). However, if one adjusts for the Ksh1bn spent on new branches and increasing ATMs, the numbers look okish. Apart from bad debts in 2008, the other is issue of concern is that potentially, there will be continually higher staff costs from the additional 4,000 staff.

StanChart has pleasantly surprised with a 32% rise from 2006 driven by FX and Other commissions. Moreover, its been a great year if you are a shareholder of StanChart because adjusting for the shareprice differences, it has a superior div yield and its share price appreciation
 is similar to BBK's . Even better for us NIC shareholders.  NIC hit 63% rise.
Bamburi saw very strong results on 34% rise in turnover but had Ksh2m wiped of its cashflow due to clinker expenses. It paid a very good dividend for the yr though at Ksh6.

Also announcing interim and others were KPLC, EA Portland (54% down on costs from Clinker), KRe got hit by higher claims but saw 9% rise in PAT due to lower tax rate ; KPLC saw flat turnover and hence slight PAT rise (4%).

Kenya RE IPO-The Prospects

What does Kenya Re do? Insures insurance companies. Has 21% of the Kenyan market. Its main rivals in the Kenyan market are Africa Re, PTA Re and East Africa Re in that order. By law, all Kenyan insurers must re insure 33% of their business, 18% they have to do with Kenya Re. Kenya Re generates currently 63% of its net premiums from Kenya and 30% from the rest of Africa. By industry, most of its premiums are from industrial fire (46%).

How does it make its Profit/Loss? Re insurers make money from net premiums (new premiums received less new claims) ; income from their investment portfolios (rent; dividends; net proceeds from buying and selling these investments; interest; unrealised capital gains from shares and property revaluations) and then adjust for management expenses. 40% of its investment portfolio is in properties...

Strengths: Has a strong balance sheet. Got a "very good" credit rating last July (i.e. before the scandal broke). A credit rating is important in the financial sector as it internationally comparable measure of financial strength. Recognisable name in Kenya and in Africa.

Weaknesses: 

1. Corporate governance and internal controls led to scandal discovered earlier in the year where the now ex-MD and FD were engaged in amateurish pilfering (amount not fully quantified in the prospectus). Most of the BoD that was there during this period are still there. New auditor now appointed who may take a while to get to know the system. Most of BoD have loans from Kenya Re. KEY WEAKNESS.
2. Weak insurers especially in its key Kenyan market (20 out of the 42 are under-capitilised based on the recently issued criteria). 
3. Reliance on investment income (has usually seen almost as much growth from this compared to its core activities).
   
4. Non-property portfolio all Kenyan-based. It should be done to match its business exposure.
5. Despite the international ambitions, doesn't hedge its book against fx risk

Opportunities: The Kenyan economy will grow as will that of the rest of the Africa meaning increased business in volume and variety of premiums. International opportunities are still open to Kenya Re. A reduced property portfolio should surely increase its liquidity and make KRe more agile in writing new business.

Threats: 

1. Other re-insurers within Kenya (apparently most prefer foreign owned firms that are perceived as stronger). In its other markets in Middle East, stronger re insurers now targeting e.g. Takafu. 
2. Re insurer rates are under competitive pressure. 
3. Forecast for 2007 based on ropey fx assumptions (Usd fx rate of 73 when its been sub-70 for most of this yr and £ rate of 146).
4.  GoK still has a 60% holding thus political interference (of the KNAC- sort) may still happen.
5.  Large claims (e.g. the Tsunami of 2005 ) can and do have material impact on KRe's numbers.
   
6. Cessation rights (which give KRe 18% guaranteed premiums from each insurer) come to end on or before 2011

View 

For: KenGen IPo priced at 11.90 reached 40 on first day; Scangroup (10.45 hit 15 and is now 26); Everready (9.50 hit 25 on debut); AK (10 hit high of 15). Get the picture?

Against:

• Over-subscription because Kenyans are price/return conscious thus IPOs are God-sent. Expect 300%+ over-subscription on the retail allocation.
  
• Delayed refunds: AK was text-book, KenGen was nightmare. KRe being GoK ,will sway towards the KenGen experience
• Diminishing marginal returns: Preference for institutional investors (means potentially there is lower upside in 2ndary market) and investor boredom may mean returns on the scale of 50-100% rather than 100%+

Kenya RE IPO-some analysis

Faida Stocks have done some investment analysis for this IPO. One thing to note, if you compare the Profit Before Tax on this research note with that on Kenya Re's website, you will notice that 2005 seems to be different. Don't yet know how and why.

Prospectus now available

Isn't there some requirement that an IPO prospectus has to be released some time before the application period? Barring last-minute legal hitches, application process is due to kick-off tomorrow!
For individuals and corporate investors: Wait until next week and if you a have decent broker, you'll be able to avoid committing funds only to get a 30-40% of your applied-for-shares. For those tired of the whole refund and application process, plenty of counters are looking attractive at the moment especially with this being the results announcement period.

Payment on Delivery for IPOs

For the Kenya Re IPO, GoK/NSE has further favoured institutional investors by allowing them to pay only when their share allocation is confirmed something not offered to retail investors. This in addition to allocation them a portion of shares for which only they can apply for. Retail investors are complaining seeing this as further unfair practice on the part of the NSE /GoK elite. However, there seems to be several reasons to suggest that this may be a very wise move on the NSE's part.

1. Stability: Many investors (retailers as well as institutionals) have in past IPOs tended to liquidate some of their holdings and use the receipts for IPOs. This adversely impacts many counters causing the NSE index to fall. By giving this special dispensation to QII, it will allow them to in effect give some stability to NSE index during the IPO period. What about those counters with little institutional support? There are probably weak on fundamentals anyway...


2. Speculation: IPOs have been dominated by speculators who chasing the immediate post-IPO uplift in the price will withdraw savings, borrow and sell everything including their priced bulls to participate in IPOs. This has negative impact on the wider financial system and is compounded by effect of delayed refunds. Most of the immediate post-IPO uplift has come from QII and others going into the secondary to pick up shares. By apportioning an amount of the IPO shares to QII, the secondary market will become thinner thus lowering the immediate uplift from IPOs. This will act to discourage speculators.


3. Shareholder expense: Thanks to the free-for-all IPO system, KenGen held its last AGM at Kasarani Stadium and spent ksh80m on the various costs involved (printing and sending annual reports, dividend checks etc). This is not clever business. Moreover, having too many retail investors will accentuate any periods of volatility.

Finally, (and I am not in NSE's pay), MPs like journalists often refuse to let a good story get in the way of facts. Such is the case with yesterday's question time. James Mwangi (Equity's CEO) has never denied he worked for Trade Bank (its in Equity's annual report); unless he owns shares through his fellow directors, its not possible for him to hold 30% in Equity; Trade Bank was mentioned in relation to Goldenberg, as was Barclays, Stan Chart and others. As to people around Jimnah Mbaru owning 90% of the NSE, even a perusal on Hasinet's excellent company info will show you this is unlikely.

NSE: A preview of H2 07

July to Dec will likely be dominated by the slated IPOs namely Kenya Re, Safaricom and far-fetchedly, (NBK, Telkom) and the General Election. Analysing these and their likely impacts:

Kenya Re: As Kenya Re is using an AccessKenya type of IPO mode, this will lock out some of the speculative retail investors and will also reduce the upside expected. Its unlikely that Kenya Re will have a strong downward impact on the NSE. But bear in mind that with previous oversubscriptions, overextended refund periods, the retail sector are becoming increasing choosy about IPOs. Verdict: minimal downside impact on NSE index.

Safaricom: GoK will be under immense political and public pressure to do this IPO as a free-for-all i.e. similar to KenGen. If it does, the NSE may well see counters falling by 5-10% as liquidity dries up. But, will GoK allow the wider market to fall at the expense of putting smiles on the same folks? Yes/maybe. Bottomline: expect some impact on NSE counters

General Elections: Impact has been -ve in past elections with some correlation being seen when there has been uncertainty as to the new head of state. This time will be no different except that it should be clear within July/Aug how bad the impact will be on NSE. At the moment, the political consensus is that IF the ODM house gets itself in order and unites behind its candidate, there might be a real political contest in which case expect some downside on the NSE.


Other highlights will be the interim results of various shares, especially Equity (can it double Q2 profits to justify current multiples being reflected in its share price?), EA Cables, NBK (will they get any uplift from the npl pay-off as alleged by some?) and KQ (any impact of accident?) and will Mumias give its long-suffering shareholders some +ve news by releasing improved FY 06 results. Also, in the frame will be M&A in form of CFC Stanbic who its clear they have done their homework in terms mitigating against BOC/Carbacid-type of hold-ups. As well as Equity/HFCK?

Of IPOs, OFDs, HFCK & Bears

Kimunya confirmed NSE's worst kept secret, Kenya Re won't happen in March but May and KenGen's 19% offload is being brought forward to next month. Kenya Re will most likely be the equivalent of the grocer who hides rotten oranges at the bottom (why are they taking on KNAC's assets at this stage of the game?), but at 60m shares will still be oversubscribed. KenGen's offload is a few months late or 1 year too early i.e. the timing is wrong. Reason-the tariff fiasco with the govt having realised too late that it had created a rod for its own back by committing on a prospectus to pay KenGen their real cost of production. So far, Treasury is covering the gap between what KPLC can profitably pay to KenGen and the amount KenGen needs to profitably continue to produce electricity. Govt is in such a mess that they paid a consultant to tell them that yes, you'll have to ask consumers to pay for the real and higher cost of producing electricity-many could have told the govt that without charging them! Without some confirmation of this, investors should stay away from the offload and buy the shares at k10-15 in the secondary market later this year.
HFCK announced their FY06 results, PBT was up 56% primarily on lower staff costs (does that mean its not growing any more?) and lower loan loss provisions (good-HFCK nearly went bankrupt from carrying too much of the stuff). So not driven by revenue growth (1% up on FY05) and there was no dividend. There is still confusion over strategy. HFCK now wants to fund construction of properties. So it will be carrying two types of risks in its books-property not sold and then when its sold, it'll obviously have the more conventional lending risks. This is a market that KCB seems to be way ahead in so this investor doesn't see how HFCK will survive as a standalone entity to see out Frank Ireri's 5yr strategy. The strategy will require financing of around k13bn which I am not sure the proposed rights issue will bridge-perhaps a better idea would be to float a 25 year bond.
The current correction/bearish sentiment at the NSE is a perfect opportunity for the long-term stock investors most who will say its a necessary rite of passage that imparts important lessons for one to be successful. There is sympathy for those that were hoping to use the NSE bull run to raise short-term funds which there is quite a few in the current investor population, but not for the get-rich-quick crowd. For the rest, use this period to accumulate in stocks you believe will grow your capital in the medium to long-term.
Kenya Bankers Association revealed that Ksh20bn of the bad debts in the banking system is held by 100 defaulters-shouldn't they be letting all financial institutions know who they are?

2007 UPCOMING GREAT INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Kenya RE IPO
Dyer and Blair is the Lead Transaction advisor in the privatization of the Kenya RE Corporation. The Government of Kenya owns 100% of Kenya Re and intends to sell 40% of its shares. Kenya RE is undergoing a re-organization to reduce costs, improve processes and diversify its income stream. It made a profit of Kes: 461M in 2005 as compared to Kes: 452M previously. The IPO is slated for March 2007.

SAFARICOM: Kenya's most Profitable Company.
Having made a profit of over Sh. 12 billion last year, Safaricom is one of the fastest growing companies in Kenya and it’s riding higher. Safaricom valued at over Kshs: 200 Billion will offload at least 25% of its shareholding probably mid 2007.

Telcom Kenya
The government intend to sell about 34 per cent of its shares through an IPO around Sept 2007.


East African Portland Cement:
Lafarge and the Government to offload more shares to the public to reduce their holdings, and increase the total number of shares traded to the 25% required by CMA for listed companies.Lafarge holds 41.7% in EA Portland and 73% in Bamburi Cement. likely IPO is about end of the year.

Kengen:
The government plans to offload a further 19% to the public in June 2007. Around 400 Million shares reducing its stake to 51%.

FAMILY FINANCE BUILDING SOCIETY (BANK)
Soon to be Family Bank is one of the leading microfinance institutions in Kenya and is now offering 15,000,000 Million Share at Kes:60.00 per share (minimum of 500 shares). The share offer is by private placement and a subsequently IPO or like EQUITY BANK did. One need to be an account holder with family finance to be able to purchase the shares.

SAROVA GROUP
Owns a portifolio of profit making hotels chain in Eastern Africa.

Co-op Bank
Already selling their shares through private placement @100 per share
Profit making and available in many parts of the country.

(Other romoured IPO's include):

Sadolin paint-

Adopt-a-light-biggest outdoor advertiser in kenya, involved in road signing too.

Orion EA-sells agricultral chemicals in East Africa.

Triple A Capital-

More information will be provided about the above.