Tale of Two IPO's

In the last few months we've seen two pubilc share offers in east Africa; the Bank of Kigali offer in Rwanda and the British American Investment Co. offer in Kenya, both whose shares were supposed to start trading this week.

While Bank of Kigali offer was successfully oversubscribed by 274 percent (raised $62.5 million out of the targeted amount of $16.7) and went ahead to gained 52 percent on the first day; British American IPO managed a 60 percent subscription (only managing $37.8 million of the $62.9 million targeted) and has said in a newspaper posting that it would delay its stock exchange debut by six days to September 8.

Does this mean Rwanda is a better investment destination in the region than Kenya?

Cherry Picking - 2011

2011 has opened with more than enough offers for East African investors. After several rights issues were over-subscribed last year and with the economy looking quite optimistic, the bull market could be back in the region.

A quick line up of some corporate actions across East Africa[no particular order]:

Kenya
- TransCentury (net assets worth $150mln) - to raise Ksh.3 bln through introduction
- British American Group: planning a Ksh.7 bln IPO
- CFC Insurance Holdings to list this year.
- Kenya Airways fund raising for expansion (right issue/corporate bond?)
- TPS EA planning a second rights issue
- Cooperative Insurance Company (CIC) IPO [2013]
- National Bank of Kenya – government 51% divesture
- Consolidated Bank – government divesture
- 30 year state bond {on going}
- NSE trading at a seven months low = undervalued stocks?

Uganda
- Kinyara Sugar Works - to list a 49% stake this year
- Tullow Oil - to cross list some shares in USE

Rwanda
- MTN Rwanda – state to sell off it’s 10% stake
- SONARWA – Rwanda’s biggest insurer. Govt to sell a 20% stake in an IPO.

Tanzania
- Precision Air – 55 mln shares or 65% of its authorized shares worth $28 mln to be sold in an IPO
- African Barrick Gold Plc – listed on London Stock Exchange in March 2010. To cross list some shares at the DSE

mostly sourced from Reuters

Blocked

It's been a while since my last blog post: too much to do, too little time, too lazy to write anything. Good news though, at last the block is headed to an end. And this one does not count as a post either.

Forex Trading for Newbies

I’ve always been skeptic of forex trading. I figured out from a friend a few years back that the risk of losing money trading currencies is even higher than the disclaimer given on trading sites. However a tweep friend @faithmight, who I can easily say is a guru in forex trading, introduced me to some newbie guide sites in this volatile form of investment. Among them I found one top rated forex broker site that proved quite helpful.

ForexTraders gives a comprehensive step by step guide to forex trading that is set to make any net forex loser a net gainer.

Trading in forex always require that you use an online broker and like any other investment choosing the right broker is quite important. The difference between these forex brokers is the broker fee. Another difference might be how much your consultant or reminder, will help you in your first steps and if they are willing to guide you all the way. ForexTraders provides a full review about these aspects, so you can decide which are the best forex brokers that suit your needs.

ForexTraders also update with the latest forex news and latest strategies constantly, which helps a trader know the latest news or the trend about the current market. Information is quite important in forex trading and may determine if you make some gains or not.

Uchaguzi

The creative minds @Ushahidi have once again launced Uchaguzi, a technology platform that allows citizens and civil society to monitor and report incidences around the electoral process during the upcoming referendum on August 4th.

It provides web and mobile-based channels for citizens and civil society to report on electoral offences such as intimidation, hate speech, vote buying, polling clerk bias, voting misinformation etc. The reports are then sent to the electoral authorities or security personnel for action.

Anyone can report on these incidents during and after the referendum by sending a text message to 3018 (normal charges apply) or sending an email to reports@uchaguzi.co.ke or sending a tweet with the hash-tag #uchaguzi.

Uchaguzi is a collaborative action by The Constitution & Reform Education Consortium (CRECO), The Social Development Network (SODNET) and Uraia. It’s funded by HIVOS and Twaweza