Author: David Indeje

East African Breweries Limited has completed the acquisition of an additional 30 per cent stake in Serengeti Breweries Limited to take its total holding in the company to 85 per cent. “On 21 October 2020 and on 6 November 2020, EABL completed the acquisition of 13.3 per cent and 16.7 per cent, respectively, of shares in Serengeti Breweries Limited for a total consideration of $55 million (£42 million) in cash and £16 million in the form of shareholder loans outstanding to EABL,” Diageo wrote in a note to investors. The brewer operates across East Africa through its subsidiaries: Kenya Breweries…

Kenya’s inflation accelerated to 6.44 per cent in July of 2021 from 6.32 per cent in June, its highest level since February 2020. The increase is due to the effects of the Finance Bill 2021, which contained a raft of tax measures with a substantial impact on households and the economy. The government starting July raised taxes on a number of products, including cooking gas and mobile money airtime. However, it remained stable within the Central Bank of Kenya’s target band of 2.50% – 7.50%. “This was mainly driven by a rise in prices of commodities under food and non-alcoholic…

The rise of the highly contagious Delta variant has forced Kenya to indefinitely extend Covid-19 containment measures. The latest move dents hopes of opening up and returning to pre-pandemic life. Kenya’s Ministry of Health extended the nationwide daily 10 pm to 4 am curfew indefinitely. “The hours of the ongoing national curfew continue across the country from 10 pm to 4 am across the country. This applies now to the counties in the lake region as well,” Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said. In June, the government revised curfew hours for  13 counties in the Western region from 10pm to…

Shareholders of Safaricom Plc, Kenya’s largest telco, have approved a proposal to create an operating company in Ethiopia. With the approval, Safaricom will move ahead to create an operating company incorporated in Ethiopia with Safaricom as a majority shareholder commanding a 55.7 per cent stake in the entity. In addition to Safaricom, the partnership includes: Vodacom Group; Vodafone Group; Sumitomo Corporation – one of the largest international trading and business investment companies; and CDC Group – the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor. Shareholders of the company cleared the proposal, during the company’s Annual General Meeting held July 30th…

East African Breweries Limited (EABL) has reported a one per cent drop in net profit for the year ended 30th June 2021,  due to cost inflation, tax and foreign exchange impact. The brewers’ profit before tax jumped two per cent to KSh10.9 billion during the year. Group Managing Director and chief executive Jane Karuku said through fiscal 2021, the pandemic continued to impact the business negatively across East Africa due to the restrictions in Kenya and Uganda and the general decline in disposable incomes in the region. Net cash from operating activities was up 337 per cent to KSh14.6 billion,…

Kenya’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)  says there is adequate liquidity in the financial system to support growth in the near term. This means the central bank is likely to keep the benchmark interest rates unchanged at 7.00 per cent. “Lowering the rate is to achieve a certain objective. There is a lot of liquidity in the system. What will be the purpose of lowering the rate? Dr Patrick Njoroge said Thursday. “In terms of liquidity management, at the end of June and beginning of July,…We did have a huge influx of liquidity. A lot of these was used to make…