Britam’s Legal Trick to Cure Dividend Drought

Good evening 👋🏽. It's Brian from The Kenyan Wall Street. In today's newsletter :

• Britam has set in motion a capital restructuring with no known parallel among firms on the NSE.

• The gov't has explained why its plan to provide cheaper gas cylinders for households will have to wait.

Britam’s Legal Trick to Cure Dividend Drought 

By Harry Njuguna

Britam has not raised capital, sold a subsidiary, or discovered a sudden burst of profits; instead, it has reached into one of the quietest corners of the balance sheet and performed a legal maneuver rarely attempted by a listed operating company. By using share premium to erase accumulated losses at the parent level, the insurer is trying to solve a six-year dividend drought not with cash but with accounting law. The decision transforms what was once a purely technical capital reserve into a tool for restoring the company’s ability to pay dividends. In effect, Britam is using money raised years ago not to grow the business again, but to repair the balance sheet that has stood in the way of a payout.

Read the article here >>>>>

Why Kenya aborted the Saudi LPG Deal 

By Brian Nzomo

Kenya did not walk away from the Saudi LPG deal because the money was too small or the project too complicated, but because of what it would have required in return. The proposed financing came tied to exclusive supply rights for Saudi Aramco, effectively handing one foreign supplier control over a market the government is still trying to expand. By rejecting the terms, the state has chosen a slower, more uncertain path of private funding, local manufacturing, and incremental infrastructure; over a quick solution that would have narrowed competition.

Read the full article here >>>>>

Ziidi, Mansa X Drive Record Year for SIB

By Harry Njuguna 

Standard Investment Bank (SIB) did not just post a sharp rise in profit; it revealed how quickly an indigenous investment bank can scale once asset-management fees begin to compound. The near-tenfold earnings jump was driven less by traditional brokerage income than by the explosive growth of the Mansa X funds and the sudden emergence of Ziidi as a serious money-market product. What makes the result unusual is how concentrated it is around one engine: assets under management rose, the fee structure stayed the same, and profit followed almost automatically. What began as a niche investment bank now looks increasingly like a fund-management business with a bank attached to it.

Read the full analysis here >>>>> 

OPINION : How Kenya Can Navigate the Shocks from the Middle East War

Kenya’s current “wait and hope” approach to the ongoing crisis in the Middle East is not economically or politically feasible. Calm and calculated decisions have to be taken to avoid a deeper crisis. Evolving responses from nations far and near offer inspiration for decisive action.

Economist Cuba Houghton writes »»»»»

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