I thought I would share this with my readers and KFF!

British Richest Players  

David Beckham £87m

Michael Owen £32m

Robbie Fowler £28m

Sol Campbell £27m
Rio Ferdinand £22m

Ryan Giggs £22m

Andriy Shevchenko £22m

Thierry Henry £21m

Wayne Rooney £20m

Michael Ballack £18m                                     As at 7^th December 2006. 

FOOTBALL’S TOP INVESTORS in Britain  

R Abramovich (Chelsea) £10.8bn

J Lewis (Spurs) £2.1bn

D Desmond (Celtic) £1.25bn

M Glazer (Man Utd) £1.05bn

T Hemmings (Ch’ton,Preston) £900m

Sir A Sugar (Spurs) £790m

R Lerner (Villa) £789m

D Murray (Rangers) £650m

S Keswick, family (Cheltenham) £644m

D Sullivan (Birmingham) £595m  As at 7^th December 2006. 

For more click here   

WORLD’S  RICHEST CLUBS. ANNUAL INCOME FOR 2004-05  

1(2) RealMadrid £186.2m

 2(1) Man Utd £166.4m

3(3) ACMilan £158m

4(5) Juventus £154.9m

5(4)Chelsea £149.1m

6(7)Barcelona £140.4m

7(9) BayernMunich £128m

8(10)Liverpool £122.4m

9(8) InterMilan £119.7m

10(6) Arsenal £115.7m

11(12) Roma £89m

12(11)Newcastle £87.1m

13(14) Spurs £70.6m

14(17) Schalke £65.8m

15(-)Lyon £62.7m

16(13) Celtic £62.6m

17(16)ManCity £60.9m

18(-) Everton £60m

19(-)Valencia £57.2m

20(15) Lazio £56.1m 

Source: BBC online.   (Previous season’s positions in brackets)  

(as at 16^th Feb 2006.)For more click here.

 

EAST AFRICA’S MOST RESPECTED COMPANIES SURVEY FOR 2006. 

OVERALL WINNER.

KENYA AIRWAYS. 

Agricultural Sector

Winner            Homegrown

2^nd                    Mumias Sugar

3^rd                    Bidco

Financial Service Sector

Winner            Standard Chartered Bank

2^nd                    Barclays Bank

3^rd                    Stanbic Bank
Uganda

Manufacturing Sector

Winner            East African Breweries

2^nd                    Bidco

3^rd                    Mukwano Group

Telecommunications and ICT Sector

Winner            Safaricom

2^nd                    MTN
Uganda

3^rd                    Celtel
Tanzania

Hotels and Tourism Sector

Winner            TPS
Eastern Africa

2^nd                    Kempinski Hotel

3^rd                    Tamarind Group

Service Sector

Winner            Nakumatt Holdings

2^nd                    Aga Khan Hospitals

3^rd                    Precision Air

East Africa Most Respected Companies Survey- Country Awards Most Respected Company in
Kenya

Kenya Airways

Most Respected Company in
Uganda

MTN

Most Respected Company in
Tanzania

Tanzania Breweries

ABOUT THE AWARDS 

Background of Survey

Ø      in its seventh year

Ø      its an opinion poll of CEOs in the region

What Drives CEOs choice of Company

§         reasons personal to CEOs but examples are

§         sound business strategy

§          innovative products and services

§          financial performance

§          good customer care

§         sound management practices

§         good corporate citizenship

§         responsible use of environment

Who participated in the survey and how do you select survey participants

• 300 companies took part this year

How survey is conducted

Conducted by face to face interview carried out by an independent company- this year it was Steadman

Who decides the winner?

Nominations are made by CEOs during their interviews.

Company emerging with most votes wins.

Source: Pwc

As the political fever continue to rise in the country, Waihenya has a daunting task ahead of him as he will tries to balance the pro and anti government agendas in the state owned broadcast.

As the editor in chief, Waihenya will determine the editorial content which will affect the lives on Kenyans.

He has cut an image in the media and is famous for the column faces the facts which he ran for a while at the Standard.

He is also the author of The Making of a Mediator, a biography on Lazaro Sumbeiywo.

Together with the management he will oversee, the continuing revamping of the station as it tries to modernize its archaic equipments.

However, only time will tell,

We wish him all the best.  

 

Kenya premier TV station KTN has what I would call the best Christmas present for its viewers and more so for its rivals.

This is what I would call a day light Christmas Coup against it rival like NTV, KBC and Citizen.

Starting today, KTN starts screening the most exciting and fascinating Series ever-Prison Break.

This is a must see for all.

If you thought 24, Small Ville, Commander in Chief, West Wing and the likes were exhilarating then Prison Break is invigorating.

The script is fantastic, the casting is incredible. It boasts great actors like Dominc Purcell (Lincoln Burrows) who is facing a death penalty for killing the Vice President Brother.

Wentworth Miller (Michael Scofield) has the guts to go to jail and save his brother.

Other great actors include Rockmond Dunnbar of Soul Food and the damn mad spoiler Robert Knepper (Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell)

If you like it, drop a line.

If you must

 then—

EABL in a paid advert in today’s papers has put up an advert in its continuous campaign on responsible drinking. Its say, if you have to party, please use a Taxi.

This is in response to the three lives we lost in tragic road accident along Donholm that has shock many Kenyans.

As claimed, the three were coming from an “entertainment joint” in Westlands.

What with Westie” I have seen two guys I know perish in a road accident in two separate accidents while coming from these entertainment joints in Westlands.

Please, if you must Drink, Take a taxi, it will cost you less than you are worth.

I think its time alcoblow came back into the scene; at least it will save a few lives.

 

Safaricom : who’s to blame? 

As President Mwai Kibaki took power in 2003, a major secret deal was being finalized behind everyone’s back.

According to the latest issue of The East African, ghoul faces said to be elites in the former regime made a cool  Ksh740 million ($10 million) in gains after disposing 5% of their stake in Safaricom to Vodafone PLC.

It has been in the public domain that, Safaricom is controlled by the Government through Telkom and British mobile phone giant Vodafone Plc. The revelations of a third phantom Company have greeted everyone with awe and the ball is in the government’s court and that of the capital market to unmask this elites.

Vodafone’s’ shares in Safaricom as at January 2003 stood at 30%, says The East African and later at 35% after the said deal was finalized.

It is now unclear who control the remaining 5% after the said transactions since Vodafone’s’ disclosure in its annual accounts says it only holds a 35% in the most profitable company in
Kenya.

The said company referred to as Mobitelea Ventures Ltd, is not registered with the registrar of Societies in
Kenya.

These new development puts the government, Safaricom and Vodafone on the spot light as to who is fooling who.

Safaricom went to the capital market in May 2001 to issue a 4 billion bond and as required it declared its true owners as Vodafone with 40% and Telkom with 60%.

Safaricom has issued dividends to its two parents and shared it according to their shareholding. If indeed, Mobitelea exits, did it receive the dividend since its entitled to? If it ever received how was the cash channeled and from who?

Does Ndolo Ayah as the Chairman of Safaricom know something we don’t know?  

Has Vodafone been coercing with the said elites to hide their true identity?

Was the capital market authority compromised as Safaricom issued the Bond at the capital market?

Well I can only point my finger to a few people, Safaricom board through its CEO and Chairman Michael Joseph and Ndolo Ayah. Vodafone’s officials and the Treasury through its officials like the Investment Secretary.    

Well only time will tell. As Safaricom goes public, all faces behind it will surface and the culprits exposed.

 

The dust has finally settled on the on going hullabaloo on the return of Prof George Saitoti and Kiraitu Murungi to the Cabinet.

As one Macharia Gaitho, Managing Director in charge of Special projects at Nation clearly noted, the two had just ‘stepped aside’ paving way for investigations and as fate had it, they were all cleared and ‘resumed’ their duties.

The million dollar question is, why did President Mwai Kibaki bring the two generals back to the battle zone?

Politically, Kibaki has realized that, his front line force is impotent and with the two in the cold he will be making a political suicide come next year.

Kibaki cannot rely on Danson Mugatana, John Michuki, Njenga Karume, Koigi Wamwere and the likes for a commanding political clout as he is not  sure whether they will make a comeback in 2007 or not.

What Kibaki’s advisers must have told him is that, he needs the Saitotis and the Kiraitus who commands a large following among their people, and those who can mobilize electorates and rally behind him in 2007.

Kiraitu and Saitoti are capable of this as they have proved and that is what Kibaki is banking them on. The Koigis and the Michukis enjoys no respect beyond their neighborhood and will have to sweat to come back in 2007.

The Standard’s Managing Director in charge of weekend’s editions Kipkoech Tanui summarized Kibaki’s action as “sasa mta do? (so what)

With ODM preaching water and drinking wine, Kibaki has realized that he can no longer play the Mr nice guy.

ODM is busy fronting corrupt officials as an alternative corrupt free government comes 2007 forgetting that majority of them are in the Goldenberg and the Anglo leasing scandals. Other have grabbed public lands and stolen from Kenyans.  

Economically, Kibaki has searched and found no replacements in the Education and the Energy ministry. With the education sector in crisis there is need to bring in a sober and an understanding mind  in the ministry and Saitoti proved beyond doubt that he is capable.

The energy sector is undergoing radical changes and you need a sharp mind like that of Kiraitu in the ministry but
Kenya has very few Kiraitus in its political circles who can steer this crucial docket to the next level.  Mwangi Kiunjuri, who is the assistant minister in the Energy docket cannot fit in that shoe, its too big for him.

The likes of Paul Muite cannot be trusted by Kibaki and cannot share the same table with Michuki who is in the kitchen cabinet and Muites’  political enemy number one.

It’s therefore obvious that, what Kibaki did was ethically wrong but politically correct.

  Beijing City   

With China, who needs the West? 

The curtains have finally fallen on the much publicized China, Africa Summit with Beijing pledging to double aid to Africa in the next three years.

The summit ended on a high note for the two groups with deals worth $1.9 billion concluded and assurances from Beijing that it was not trying to monopolize Africa’s resources.  

This has come as a surprise to the European economic giants and the US who have put political pressure on China to appreciate its currency which stands at 8.28 Yuan per U.S. dollar, a rate that some economists suggest is undervalued by as much as 40 percent.  

The million dollar question is how China has managed to lure Africa into its feather and why the African begging hand has suddenly changed its course from the West to the East.

Unlike the traditional donors in the name of the US, European Union and the Bretton Wood institutions, China’s economic pledge to Africa comes with no or little strings attached.  

The agreements, signed between 12 Chinese firms and African governments and companies, followed Chinese President Hu Jintao’s pledge on Saturday to offer $5 billion in loans and credit, and to double aid to Africa by 2009.

Apart from aid relief and more cash injection, China has pledged to build expressways in Nigeria, in Ghana China is set to lay a telephone network and erect a smelter in Egypt.

In expense of these, China has set its eyes on the oil, gas and mineral resources from Africa especially in Sudan and Congo.

In Kenya, Chinese as busy exploring oil and they have majority share in Tiomin, a Canadian Company mining Titanium at the Coast of Kenya.  With the Volatile situation in Sudan, the Kenyan government knows very well that it seeks to benefit a lot as the Chinese are expected to make Kenya their economic base for East Africa and Sudan.

President Mwai Kibaki knows it well, and he has often been quoted saying, the country needs to look further East for emerging opportunities.

Ever wondered who are these silent shareholders who control trading of Kenya’s blue chip company’s but will never dare to speak in AGM’s?I thought I would share with you this list on who is who in Keya Airways top shareholding list.

But someone has to help me unravel who is (are) this Barclays (Kenya) Nominees Ltd shareholder.  Heard a rumour, but just want to be sure.

Category                               No. of            No of                                                         Shareholders      shares held

1. Kenyan individual investors      75,531             142,818,605

2.Kenya institutional investors      2,897               171,723,932

3. East African individual investors    38                      143,382

4. East African institutional investors   5                       583,748

5. Foreign individual investors          167                   6,295,275

6. Foreign institutional investors          12               140,050,541

Total                                                   78,650             461,615,483 

Largest 10 shareholders as at 31^st March 2006.            

Name                                          shares held             %

1. KLM-Konik Lijke                    120,020,026            26

    Luchuaart Maatschappj

2. Treasury(GoK)                         106,171,561            23

3. Paul Wanderi Ndungu                 15,332,300            3.32

4. Barclays(Kenya) Nominees          11,565,000           2.50

    Ltd non Resident

5. Mansukhla Khetshi Shah               9,386,843            2.03

6. Mahendra Kumar Khetshi Shah    5,820,750            1.26

7. Khetshi Dharamshi & Co Ltd       5,221,44               1.13

8. Rameshchandra Khetshi Shah      4,665,094              1.10

9. Apollo Insurance Co Ltd             4,381,633             0.94

10. Shah Mahendra Kumar Khetshi  4,260,119            0.92

Subtotal                                         286,824,770         62.11 

Other shareholders(78,650)                  174,790,713    37.89

Distribution of shares as at 31^st March 2006. 

Shares               No of              no                            %                

                   Shareholders    shares held 

1 to 500                       34,914             16,146,061      3.49

501 to 5,000                41,150             53,098,870      11.50

5,001 to 10,000           1,196               8,678,246        1.88

10,000 to 100,000       1,210               33,080,811      7.17

100,001 to 1,000,000  160                  44,252,874      9.59

Over 1,000,000           20                    306,358,621    66.37

The 2,913 corporate investors will have to contend with only 31 million shares out of the 138 million shares they had applied for. The employees will get 3.45 million shares out of the 6.29 million shares they had applied for.

Here is a brief share allocation criterion for the individual investors

Offer shares applied                          Offer shares allotted

 Between 500 and 1000                       300

Between 1,100 and 5,000                    400

Between 5,100 and 10,000                  500

Between 10,100 and 15,100                600

Between 15,100 and 25,000                700

Between 25,100 and 50,000                800

Between 50,100 and 75,000                900

Between 75,100 and 100,000              1000

Between 100,100 and 500,000            1,500

Between 500,100 and 2 million             3,000

Over 2 million                                       6,100