May 15, 2016
In our Cytonn Weekly #15, 2015, we focused on Savings and Investments and elaborated why individuals should strive to save and suggested steps to effectively create a savings plan. We highlighted the six steps on how and why to save and finally, suggested several saving options and products. This week, we continue to expound on the same subject, looking at the wider process of financial planning, with focus on the stages of making a financial plan.Financial planning is defined as a the process of a comprehensive evaluation of an individual's current income and future financial state by using currently known variables to predict future income, asset values and withdrawal plans. Before establishing a financial plan, one should consider their current circumstances based on age, income and level of risk tolerance. These factors have led to the broad classification of investors into three phases:...Kenya Listed Insurance Companies FY2015 Report
May 4, 2016
Following the release of the FY2015 results by insurance firms, we have carried out an analysis on Kenyas insurance sector to decipher any material changes from our H12015 Insurance Report. In our analysis of the insurance sector, we recommend to our investors which insurance firms are the most attractive and stable for investment from a franchise value and from a future growth opportunity perspective. See our FY'2015 insurance report here.The report is themed "Given turbulence in banking, is all well in insurance?", as the insurance sector grapples with low penetration, slowing premium growth, increased cases of fraudulent claims and the required increase in capital following adoption of a risk based capital adequacy framework. In addition, with jitters hav...Cytonn Corporate Governance Index
May 8, 2016
The Kenyan investing public has recently lost roughly Kshs 264.3 bn across various companies. As discussed in our Focus of the Week on Corporate Governance in Kenya, most of the losses appear to have been driven mainly by a failure of corporate governance. The losses are shown in the table below:.mcnTextContent p,.mcnTextContent a,.mcnTextContent li,.mcnTextContent strong{ font-size: 25px !imporant; line-height:1.6em !important;}.mcnTextContent strong{ color: 606060;}.title{ font-size: 20px; text-align: center; margin-top: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px;}.table{ float:center; margin-top:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width:95% !important;}.table thead tr td,.table .header td{ background-color:#006666 !important; color: #FFF !important;}.table thead tr td p strong, .table thead tr td p,.table .header td p strong, .table .header td p{ font-weight: normal !important; color: #FF...Mortgage and Rental Affordability in Nairobi Metropolis
Apr 24, 2016
In September 2015, see Cytonn Report #37, we did a focus note on the mortgage market in Kenya, essentially looking at why the uptake of mortgages remained low; currently at only 22,000 mortgages for a country of 44 million people with the total mortgage values equating to 2.7% of GDP, compared to, say, South Africa, where mortgage values to GDP equal about 24.2%.For a country of 44 million people, with a population growth rate of 2.4% p.a, an effective housing deficit reported to be 200,000 per annum, with an increasing disposable income and a growing construction and real estate industry, it is a contradiction that mortgage uptake remains very low. Especially given that the real estate sector contribution to the GDP has grown from 8.0% in 2010 to 14.5% in the last quarter of 2015 while the sectors total return remains very attractive at about 25% p.a over the last 5 years.To under...Apr 17, 2016
When the Capital Markets Authority, CMA published a Code of Corporate Governance Practices last month, we did a focus note on Corporate Governance in Kenya . In that focus note, we highlighted instances where potential corporate governance malpractices may have contributed to significant loses to the investing public to the tune of approximately Kshs. 257.0 bn. We then made suggestions on how to improve corporate governance. In this note, we update the count of recent losses due to corporate governance, we then review how we can improve corporate governance in this market and highlight our upcoming Corporate Governance Index.Since the March 2016 article, we have had two more instances of significant investor loses that are primarily about corporate governance and ethics - the collapse of Chase Bank and the management changes at National Bank of Kenya (NBK). Not even considering any potential deposi...