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If you are tracking the NSE Do it via RICHLIVE and use Mozilla Firefox as your Browser. 0930-1500 KENYA TIME Normal Board - The Whole shebang Prompt Board Next day settlement Expert Board All you need re an Individual stock.
The Latest Daily PodCast can be found here on the Front Page of the site http://www.rich.co.ke
Looking forward to #Mindspeak this Saturday at the @InterConNairobi with @NjorogeP |
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Dr. Patrick Njoroge Profile Africa |
He holds a PhD degree in Economics from Yale University (1993), a Master of Arts degree in Economics (1985) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics (1983) from the University of Nairobi.
Dr. Njoroge joined the Central Bank from a varied career at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) spanning 20 years based in Washington DC. Prior to his appointment as Governor, Dr. Njoroge was Advisor to the IMF Deputy Managing Director from December 2012, where his responsibilities included assisting in overseeing the IMF’s engagement with a large swath of IMF members.
He also served as Deputy Division Chief in the IMF’s Finance Department (2006-2012), IMF’s Mission Chief for the Commonwealth of Dominica (2005-2006) and in other capacities since 1995. Prior to joining the IMF, Dr. Njoroge worked as an Economist at the Ministry of Finance (1993-1994) and as a Planning Officer at the Ministry of Planning (1985 -1987). Dr. Njoroge’s professional and research interests lie in Macroeconomics, Economic Policy, International Finance, Development Economics, Econometrics and Monetary Policy.
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'It is not the object discovered that matters, but the light that falls on it." - Boris Pasternak Africa |
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.” ― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
“But it is a curve each of them feels, unmistakably. It is the parabola. They must have guessed, once or twice -- guessed and refused to believe -- that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return. Yet they do move forever under it, reserved for its own black-and-white bad news certainly as if it were the rainbow, and they its children. . . .” ― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
“I dream that I have found us both again, With spring so many strangers' lives away, And we, so free, Out walking by the sea, With someone else's paper words to say....
They took us at the gates of green return, Too lost by then to stop, and ask them why- Do children meet again? Does any trace remain, Along the superhighways of July?” ― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
“the one Word that rips apart the day...” ― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
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U.S. Army via Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum/AP Law & Politics |
Tsutomu Yamaguchi was late for work. It was August 1945, and he'd just finished designing a 5,000-ton tanker for his company, Mitsubishi. He was heading to the office to finish up, clear out and head home, and that's when he saw the plane, high up in the sky over Hiroshima. He watched it drop a silvery speck into the air, and instinctively, says science writer Sam Kean, "he dove to the ground and covered his eyes and plugged his ears with his thumbs."
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How Obama Will Redefine Hiroshima @Politico Law & Politics |
A president who’s never shied away from moral complexity steps onto his most challenging stage yet.
Americans have not always relished scrutiny of the atomic blast that decimated Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. No sitting president has ever visited the city, and in 1996, the United States and China rejected a Japanese proposal that Hiroshima become a World Heritage site. But on Friday, Barack Obama’s motorcade will pull up to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, and the world will pause for a few moments to contemplate what happened here
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The US is dropping calls for Assad to go because the Syrian regime is a better bet than Isis Robert Fisk Law & Politics |
“We do, absolutely, have to go with what we’ve got,” according to General Vogel. And I couldn’t agree more. What that means is that the “Assad has got to go” routine is changing. We haven’t heard many Americans saying that recently, and we’ve hardly noticed it.
I suspect that the Assad-must-go campaign is going to be gently dropped – thanks to Isis, of course, which is even more hateful for the Americans than the Syrian government in Damascus.
And what do we have? Turkey threatens Isis, and Nusra and Isis remains a threat right across the Middle East. Saudis support Isis and Qatar supports Nusra, and Hezbollah supports the regime.
The Americans seem to have left the air bombing to the Russians (after complaining about it) and Putin is not afraid to say the obvious: that the government in Damascus is a better bet than Isis.
We shall see who wins. “We do, absolutely, have to go with what we’ve got.” That pretty much sums it up.
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The Data Behind Trump's Twitter Takeover @POLITICOMag Law & Politics |
We took the corpus of Trump tweets since the inception of his @realDonaldTrump account, and examined what’s distinctive about Trump’s Twitter behavior. After some filtering and data loss, this amounted to about 15,000 tweets. Some of our findings—including about some of Trump’s favorite and most distinctive words—appear in these graphics. But we wanted to parse the data further: Just how much attention has Trump received on Twitter as a candidate, we wondered? And what is linguistically distinctive about how he tweets and what he tweets about?
Trump, it turns out, has a really unusual way of talking about his opponents in the race and elsewhere. If “lying Ted” and “lightweight Jeb” sound familiar, it’s because nobody else uses language quite like Trump does. And whatever else his candidacy has accomplished, it shows that running for president is amazing for your Twitter presence: Although @realDonaldTrump’s following has grown predictably, his social-media influence has absolutely exploded.
Consider that in January 2015, the average number of retweets one of Trump’s tweets received was 79. But by January 2016, the retweet average had shot up to 2,201. So while @realDonaldTrump’s capacity to reach people directly—i.e., his number of followers—has “only” doubled, the dissemination of his average tweet increased by a factor of 28 over that time period.
Linguistically, how do those tweets look different from other candidates’? Based on our analysis of Trump’s syntax and that of the other four remaining candidates, we found that Trump leans toward adjectives more than anyone except Bernie Sanders. But what’s truly distinctive is how he uses adjectives: He combines an adjective followed by someone’s name a stunning 10 times more than any other candidate. This is primarily because of his proclivity for using Twitter to launch personal attacks on specific individuals, like “lightweight” Megyn Kelly, “little” Marco Rubio, “low-energy” Jeb Bush, “dopey” Bill Kristol, etc.
“Nasty,” for example, is reserved for Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, with Cruz being the primary target. “Weak,” on the other hand, is shared among Jeb Bush, Clinton, Carly Fiorina and Rubio. “Lightweight,” while aimed at multiple targets, was especially used against Rubio. Megyn Kelly and Jon Stewart are “overrated.” Pollster Frank Luntz is “wonderful” and “great” (alluding to some good numbers Luntz predicted for Trump)
It’s clear Trump’s Twitter feed offers him a tool for direct access to voters, who then amplify that access by retweeting him at remarkable rates. Trump’s use of Twitter is likely to be studied in future years by political strategists, but the data we have so far suggests there’s something sui generis about @realDonaldTrump that likely isn’t replicable. There may just be a remarkable coincidence in 2016 of man, medium and message.
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Commodity Markets at a Glance WSJ Commodities |
Bullion for immediate delivery fell as much as 0.7 percent to $1,211.68 an ounce, the lowest price since April 1, and was at $1,221.30 at 3:25 p.m. in Singapore, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. It’s down 2.5 percent this week, set for a fourth weekly drop that’s the longest run since November.
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Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency has asked lenders to explain why they are offering dollar-riyal forward structured products to customers Emerging Markets |
Riyal forwards for the next 12 months rose to 590 points, the highest since Feb. 19, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, signifying increased speculation of a devaluation.
SAMA is asking banks to explain the rationale and relevance of the structured products for the economy and explain why they’ve entered into the products without informing the central bank, according to the people. It also wants transaction details of the derivatives since Jan. 18.
It’s also seeking to understand the impact of the products on Saudi banks’ U.S. dollar buy positions from the central bank as well as the risks to customers and banks, they said. The central bank warned any future structured derivative product should be submitted to SAMA for review and approval before they’re launched.
Frontier Markets
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Congo Police Fire Tear Gas to Disperse Protest in Capital Africa |
Police fired teargas in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital to disperse opposition supporters calling for President Joseph Kabila to leave office this year.
“We occupied two main roads and the police are now trying to disperse us with tear gas,” Jean Lucien Bussa, leader of the opposition Party of Democrats and Reformists, said by phone from Kinshasa.
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@United Cancels Nigeria Route, Ending Its Only Flight to Africa @business Africa |
United Airlines will stop flying to Nigeria next month, ending the carrier’s only route to Africa because of weakness in the energy sector and difficulties in collecting money from tickets sold in that country.
The daily route from Houston to Lagos had underachieved for years but was kept alive because of its importance to Texas-based customers, United Continental Holdings Inc. said in a note to employees on Wednesday. The last flight will be June 30, after which Delta Air Lines Inc. will be the only major U.S. carrier flying to Africa.
“Repatriation has been a significant issue, as has been the downturn in the energy sector,” said United spokesman Jonathan Guerin, who confirmed the note’s authenticity.
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Mozambique Said to Be Hours Away From Default as Talks Stall Africa |
Mozambique is hours away from defaulting on its debt as talks about rescheduling a loan from Russia’s VTB Bank PJSC to a state-owned company falter, according to a person familiar with the situation.
A grace period for a state-guaranteed loan given to Mozambique Asset Management after it missed a May 23 deadline to make a $178 million interest payment will end Thursday, said the person, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The company has about five hours left before the grace period expires, the person said at 11.37 a.m. Maputo time.
A person who answered the phone at Mozambique’s Finance Ministry referred questions to a phone number that didn’t connect, while a second call was cut off when Bloomberg called four times seeking comment. Finance Ministry spokesman Rogerio Nkomo didn’t immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
A government official said on May 24 the government is unwilling to convert the loan extended to MAM into sovereign debt to avoid a default. A failure by MAM to reschedule the loan by the end of the day may trigger a sovereign default by Mozambique on its other obligations, including its $727 million Eurobond due in January 2023 and a $622 million loan made to state-owned Proindicus, the person said.
The yield on Mozambique’s Eurobond rose 33 basis points to 17.1 percent by 1:38 p.m. in London.
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http://www.financeuncovered.org/investigations/liberia-americas-outpost-financial-secrecy/ Kenyan Economy |
An investigation by Finance Uncovered has exposed a little-known offshore business registry that has created tens of thousands of anonymous companies and registered them to a non-existent address in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city.
Although these companies are technically a creation of Liberian law, management of the registry is based in the United States and appears to have the support of the US government.
The companies, which can be purchased online, offer near-total anonymity to their clients, allowing them to hide assets without fear of being caught by law enforcement or revenue authorities.
Among other things, Finance Uncovered’s investigation, discovered over half a billion pounds of high-value London property registered to Liberian offshore companies.
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Tanzania Government by gesture A president @MagufuliJP who looks good but governs impulsively @TheEconomist Africa |
WHEN opening parliament after his election last year, Tanzania’s president, John Magufuli, repeated a campaign promise: parents would no longer have to pay for secondary education. “And when I say free education, I indeed mean free,” he assured MPs. This year the government started expelling foreign workers without proper permits, including thousands of Kenyan teachers. Schools that were already straining to cope with a huge influx of new pupils are now at breaking point.
The president, nicknamed “the Bulldozer”, has delighted Tanzanians with an anti-corruption drive and public displays of austerity. Within weeks of taking office last November he had banned all but the most urgent foreign travel for government officials. He spent Tanzania’s Independence Day picking up litter by hand. He has fired officials suspected of incompetence or dishonesty and purged 10,000 “ghost workers” from the public payroll. However, he has a worrying tendency not to think things through.
Take, for example, his efforts to extract more tax from people using the port at Dar es Salaam, a gateway for the region. He has enforced VAT on the costs of moving goods that arrive at the port overland to neighbouring countries such as Zambia and Malawi. Shipping firms have immediately switched routes and now unload in Kenya, Mozambique or South Africa, leaving a once bustling harbour almost empty.
Mr Magufuli remains popular with ordinary Tanzanians. Twitter users at #WhatWouldMagufuliDo celebrate his thriftiness by suggesting amusing things he might approve of, such as wearing a curtain instead of buying new clothes and heating showers with a candle. The president has mended fences with neighbours, too. In April Uganda decided that a $4 billion oil pipeline would go through Tanzania, scrapping a previous agreement with Kenya. A month later Rwanda decided to build a railway to Dar es Salaam instead of the Kenyan port of Mombasa.
“What Africa needs is strong institutions, not strong men or women,” says Zitto Kabwe, an opposition leader.
Instead of addressing these deeper structural issues Mr Magufuli has continued to live up to his nickname of “Bulldozer”: one foreign firm was given seven days to settle a $5m bill, says its boss. The country’s revenue authority then took the money directly from its bank account. By contrast, the government is painfully slow to pay its own bills: it still owes the same company $30m. Acacia Mining, a gold producer, is owed $98m in VAT rebates—effectively an interest-free loan to the government. “The country has become totally uninvestable,” says a bigwig at a private-equity firm with holdings across Africa. “You pay your taxes for five years and have the returns to prove it and then some guy arrives with his own calculation and says you haven’t paid your tax.”
Mr Magufuli’s zeal may be admired, but his party, which has ruled Tanzania since independence, is thuggish and undemocratic: it suppressed dissent during the elections last year and then cancelled a vote held in Zanzibar after the opposition probably won it. Frustrated, America suspended $472m of aid. The Bulldozer merely harrumphed that Tanzania would soon no longer need aid and told the revenue authority to squeeze even harder.
Conclusions
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16-MAY-2016 :: The Geopolitics of Pipelines in East Africa, @TheStarKenya Kenyan Economy |
Given that Uganda’s decision to export its crude oil to world markets via the port of Tanga is now a ‘’done deal’’, it is worth analysing what has happened and appreciating that this is the equivalent of a blow to the solar plexus of our regional ambitions and that these ambitions are gasping for breath. Recall that Ethiopia has already dialled up the Djibouti route and that LAPPSET is in essence, a Kenyan-South Sudan gig and that South Sudan is back at around zero and is not in a position to finance its own recovery let alone a pipeline. If the reknowned short-seller Mr. Chanos could short LAPPSET, I am sure he would be limit short.
The widely read Africa Confidential said this: ‘’Uganda’s decision to export oil through Tanzania undermines Kenya’s status as regional kingpin’’. ‘’ Thee move alters the political balance of the whole region and has left Kenya with some catching up to do. thee preferred route until the second half of last year, Kenya now has a considerably less viable oil field and a damaged reputation as the heartbeat of East African integration’’. Chatham House in an earlier report said: ‘’Uganda’s foreign affairs minister also highlighted the issue of relative costs of the rival routes. The projected cost of the Tanzania route is approximately $4 billion, up to $1 billion less than going via Kenya. Kenya’s proposed tariff was almost $17 per barrel, compared to Tanzania’s $12 per barrel. Uganda’s energy minister has also reported that Tanzania has waived land fees, transit charges and taxes associated with the pipeline”.
When you look at the numbers, our pipeline build was 25 per cent more expensive and our price per barrel 29.411 per cent more costly, you realise that we were never in the pipeline game.
Frame the question as a national interest, one for Uganda and its a no-brainer. en you have to ask, where was our intelligence? How could we be so far away from the winning bid? When I worked in the city and missed a big trade, I would always call back and ask how far I had missed by. Differentials of 25 per cent and 29.411 per cent would be terminal to the relationship.
Tanzania’s president John Magafuli has shifted the centre of gravity for East African oil and gas, South, in one fell swoop. In my humble opinion, Magafuli has moved with speed and precision and pared price of brokerage charges. He’s winning. Its time for some serious soul- searching folks.
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.@KCBGroup reports Q1 2016 Earnings here Kenyan Economy |
Par Value: 1/- Closing Price: 39.25 Total Shares Issued: 2984227692.00 Market Capitalization: 117,130,936,911 EPS: 6.086 PE: 6.449
Q1 Loan and advances to customers (net) 345.943452b vs. 297.031494b +16.467% Q1 Customer deposits 423.433144b vs. 397.102268b +6.631% Q1 Total shareholders’ equity 83.959606b vs. 79.408118b +5.732% Q1 Total operating income 15.484396b vs. 13.888160b +11.494% Q1 Total other operating income [8.870108b] vs. [7.654866b] +15.875% Q1 Profit before tax and exceptional items 6.614288b vs. 6.233294b +6.112% Q1 Profit after tax and exceptional items 4.630002b vs. 4.363306b +6.112% EPS 6.12 vs. 5.77 +6.066% Total NPL 26.362349b vs. 20.166660b +30.722% Loan loss provision 12.603423b vs. 9.108129b +38.376%
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KCB of Kenya Doubles Provisions as First-Quarter Bad Loans Rise Kenyan Economy |
KCB Group Ltd., owner of Kenya’s largest bank, posted a 6 percent rise in first-quarter profit to 4.63 billion shillings ($46 million) and doubled loan loss provisions as non-performing credit jumped by 43 percent.
The bank with operations in seven African countries said bad loans increased to 26.4 billion shillings in the three months through March, from 18.5 billion shillings a year ago. It set aside provisions of 1.37 billion shillings for sour debt, twice what it did previously.
The Central Bank of Kenya says the industry’s non-performing loans were equal to 8.2 percent of total loans in April. Governor Patrick Njoroge, who was appointed in June 2015, has told lenders that they have been provisioning insufficiently for poor debt in East Africa’s biggest economy.
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Diamond Trust Bank reports a +9.532% Q1 2016 EPS Expansion Kenyan Economy |
Par Value: 4/- Closing Price: 202.00 Total Shares Issued: 242110105.00 Market Capitalization: 48,906,241,210 EPS: 24.42 PE: 8.272
Q1 Loans and advances to customers (net) 179.769225b vs. 144.871228b +24.089% Q1 Customer deposits 205.969037b vs. 163.260843b +26.159% Q1 Total shareholders’ equity 35.162362b vs. 30.106682b +16.793% Q1 Total operating expenses [3.287014b] vs. [2.229493b] +47.433% Q1 Profit before tax 2.473654b vs. 2.271781b +8.886% Q1 Profit for the period 1.608472b vs. 1.500039b +7.229% EPS 6.09 vs. 5.56 +9.532% Total NPL and advances 6.392206b vs. 1.790320b +257.043% Loan loss provisions 3.546780b vs. 1.640203b +116.240%
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I@M Holdings reports Q1 2016 Earnings here Kenyan Economy |
Closing Price: 110.00 Total Shares Issued: 392362035.00 Market Capitalization: 43,159,823,850 EPS: 17.12 PE: 6.425
From Kestrel Capital I&M Bank: PAT came in at KES 2.5bn, up 10.3% y/y. Earnings were largely buoyed by net interest income (+14.9% y/y to KES 2.9bn) over higher margins at 7.1% (+40bps y/y) and partly by non-funded income (+5.9% y/y to KES 973.7m). Weighing down the results was increased provisioning (+52.4% y/y to KES 219.9m). NPL ratio worsened to 4.7% from 4.2% in FY 15 and 2.2% in 1Q15. IFRS coverage ratio fell to 43.9% from 55.7% the prior year. Loan book enlarged 11.3% y/y (+2.1% ytd) to KES 117.4bn while customers deposits build up by 15.7% y/y (+4.6% ytd) to KES 122.1bn. OpEx rose 5.6% y/y to KES 1.2bn as the cost to income improved by 190bps y/y to 30.3%. Core capital and total capital to TRWA stood at 6.30% and 4.23% above the min. requirements of 10.5% and 12.5% respectively, declines from Dec 2015 values of 6.55% and 4.71%.
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