Author: David Indeje

Kenya consumer prices rose by more than expected in September as fuel, food and non-alcoholic beverage costs surged as well as the impact of recently implemented taxes. Inflation accelerated to 6.9 per cent from 6.57 per cent in August, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.  Prices of commodities with food and non-alcoholic beverages and transport rising by 10.63 and 9.21 per cent, respectively. The month-to-month on food and non-alcoholic drinks rose by 0.11 per cent in the duration between August 2021 and September 2021. “This was mainly linked to the elevated prices of some food items, which outweighed…

Unilever Tea Kenya Limited’s Board of Directors has approved plans to separate its tea business from Unilever Plc, a British multinational consumer goods company. The transfer balance of Unilever Plc’s tea brands and geographies and all tea estates in which Limuru Tea Plc falls will be transferred to a foreign, newly incorporated tea company Unilever Tea Holdco UK Limited (TeaCo). The transfer also includes the transfer of Unilever’s indirect interest in Limuru Tea. “The assets being transferred by Unilever to TeaCo include Unilever’s shareholding in Unilever Tea Kenya Limited. By virtue of the transfer of shares, Unilever’s indirect interest in Limuru…

The Kenyan economy is expected to expand by 6.1 per cent in 2021 and 5.6 per cent next year, the Central Bank has said. The recovery, however, will likely be subdued by the impact of drought on the agricultural sector. “The one sector to flag is agriculture, and agriculture remains most uncertain largely because of the rains. It is true there are some parts of the country that are getting adequate rains, and there also parts of the country where there is drought,” Kenya Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge said on Wednesday during a virtual media conference. https://youtu.be/uF8hqGzT2Cw?t=1137 In 2020,…

Unga Group Plc says its net earnings for the year ended 30 June 2021 rose 4.4 times to Ksh 293.5 million from Ksh 66.2 million compared to the prior year. The profit was bolstered by tax refunds and receipt of payments from the government for maize supplies in 2017. “The interest element of the debt remains outstanding. The long outstanding tax refunds were also received during the year ending a protracted litigation process. Both receipts improved profit for the year,” the company disclosed in its audited financial results on Wednesday. However, it said its “Overall operating profit was impacted by…

Qatar Airways has been ranked the world’s best airline by Skytrax. The Skytrax World Airline Awards are independent and impartial, introduced in 1999. Travellers across the world vote in the largest airline passenger satisfaction survey, which ran from September 2019 to July 2021. Travellers were asked about the performance and quality of more than 350 global airlines. This is Qatar Airways’ sixth time winning the Skytrax top prize. This year it was also awarded World’s Best Business Class, World’s Best Business Class Seat, Best Airline in the Middle East, World’s Best Business Class Airline Lounge and Best Business Class Onboard…

Nation Media Group (NMG) on Wednesday said it has bought back over 17.1 Million of its ordinary shares as part of the 10% buyback of its 18,854,229 ordinary share buyback offer. The share buyback program began on 28th June 2021 and closed on September 24th 2021 at 3.00 pm. Each share was being bought at a price of KSh 25 per ordinary share. A buyback, also known as a share repurchase, is when a company buys its own outstanding shares to reduce the number of shares available in the open market. “The shares we buyback could help us in the…