Kenya’s ambassador to the United Nations Habitat Sam Ongeri. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Newly appointed ambassador to the UN Habitat Sam Ongeri has
offloaded his shares in Longhorn Publishers, joining a list of the
company’s founders who have traded their holdings in the company.
Latest
regulatory filings show that Prof Ongeri, who was ranked Longhorn’s
second largest individual shareholder, could have sold some of his 0.9
million shares equivalent to a 1.65 per cent stake in the Nairobi
Securities Exchange-listed publisher, currently worth Sh20.7 million.
The
stock transfer by Prof Ongeri comes at a time when the long-serving
politician and former minister for Foreign Affairs is locked in a court
case with National Bank over a Sh25 million loan default.
Stock
sales by directors, top shareholders and senior executives of listed
firms are closely monitored by investors as a possible indicator of a
company’s future prospects given that the managers have deep insight
into the financial position of the organisations they lead.
Such
sales could also be an indication of senior executives’ belief that
their stocks could have hit their peak. It is, however, not clear
whether Prof Ongeri sold all or just part of his shares, or whether he
could have transferred them to another investment vehicle.
Prof Ongeri, 76, was two weeks ago appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta as ambassador to the UN Habitat.
Longhorn
research and business development manager David Omuruli, who previously
held 870,000 shares worth Sh18.7 million, has also cut his stake in the
company and is also missing in the list of top 10 shareholders.
Businesswoman
Margaret Mutiso also reduced her holding in the publisher, with her
stake dropping to 1.32 per cent from 1.37 per cent in the March last
year; after transferring 30,000 shares currently worth Sh645,000. Janet
Njoroge, who served as Longhorn managing director till December 2012,
has kept her shareholding at 1.11 per cent, despite the expiry of a
two-year lock-in period.
Prof Norah Khadzini Olembo, a
university don and executive director of African Biotechnology
Stakeholders Forum, has for the first time appeared in Longhorn’s top
shareholders list at position 10 with 495,480 shares presently worth
Sh10.6 million.
Longhorn founders and key shareholders,
including the former chief executive and Mr Omuruli, had their stakes
locked-in for a two-year period after the firm listed on the NSE in May
2012 at an introductory price of Sh14 per share. The stock has since
rallied to close at Sh21.50 on Friday after Longhorn more than doubled
dividend pay to Sh2 per share for the year to June from Sh0.80 paid in
2013 and declared a bonus.
Longhorn posted a one per
cent rise in net profit to June of Sh94.9 million from Sh93.9 million
last year. Book sales jumped by more than a third to Sh1.3 billion from
Sh1.03 billion a year earlier helped by exports to Malawi, Rwanda,
Tanzania and Uganda, and increased sales in the local market.
Prof
Ongeri’s exit from Longhorn could see the former legislator miss out on
a total of Sh2 dividend per share as well as a bonus issue in the ratio
of three new shares for every two shares held.
This
means Prof Ongeri would have earned a total dividend pay of Sh1.9
million from his stake and receive a further 1.4 million new shares in
bonuses. Listed investment firm Centum is the biggest shareholder of
Longhorn with a 34.9 per cent stake or 20.4 million shares.
Francis
Nyammo, the proprietor and chancellor of International University of
Professional Studies, is the second biggest owner at the publishing firm
with a 34.89 per cent shareholding held directly and through his
investment vehicle Pacific Futures and Options Limited.
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