•Talks have also been in place to privatize the Kenya Meat Commission, Development Bank of Kenya and five sugar millers—Chemelil, Sony, Nzoia, Miwani and Muhoroni.
•These are among 26 poorly performing state corporations which have been targeted by the Privatisation Commission, which has approved their sale. The Kenya Ports Authority headquarters in Mombasa/FILE The Kenya Pipeline Company and Kenya Ports Authority are prime for listing at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, according to the Capita Markets Auhority.
The regulator yesterday described the two as ‘high quality’ entities that could help deepen the country’s capital markets which has faced a listing dry spell for close to 12 years.
“We have considered high quality. Once they (KPA and KPC) deal with corporate governance issues and comply with the regulations, they can be able to list and add value to the market,” CMA’s director, regulatory policy and strategy, Luke Ombara,said.
The two are among major state agencies with strong financial books, making them ideal for listing and a boost to the capital markets, according to CMA.
KPA’s annual revenue closed at Sh53.258 billion last year from Sh45.358 billion in 2018, while KPC throughput revenue is to the tune of Sh27 billion.
Their operations were recently brought together under the Kenya Transport and Logistics Network, which also includes Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC).
They are to be coordinated by the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC).
Listing at the NSE through an Initial Public Offer (IPO) allow the public and private sector to buy shares in the agencies, with the government expected to retain majority shareholding.
Talks have also been in place to privatize the Kenya Meat Commission, Development Bank of Kenya and Chemelil, Sony, Nzoia, Miwani and Muhoroni sugar mills.
These are among 26 poorly performing state corporations which have been targeted by the Privatisation Commission, which has approved their sale to cut down government spending, mainly year-on-year bail outs (capital injection).CMA is keen to have the top corporations listed, while it pushes for more offerings by well performing companies among them Safaricom and KenGen, to deepen local investors’ turnover at the Nairobi bourse.This way, the regulator says it will secure the country’s capital market in instances of foreign investor flight, which has nevertheless improved in the third quarter despite Covid-19 effects on the market.The Q3 data released by the regulator yesterday shows net foreign portfolio outflow was at Sh4.5 billion an improvement from Sh10.3 billion in Q2, 2020 (April-June), as investors sought to […]