Corporate News
The chief executives of Barclays Bank of Kenya and KCB Group have
finally bought their banks’ shares in a demonstration of confidence of
companies they lead. Photos/File
By MICHAEL OMONDI
The chief executives of Barclays Bank of Kenya and
KCB Group have finally bought their banks’ shares in a demonstration of
their confidence in the companies they lead.
The annual reports of the two banks show that Adan Mohamed,
the managing director of Barclays Bank of Kenya, and KCB’s chief
executive Martin Oduor-Otieno bought shares last year.
The Harvard trained Mr Mohamed has been in the
board of Barclays Bank of Kenya since 1999 while Mr Oduor-Otieno has
been the CEO of KCB Group since 2007.
Mr Mohamed bought 296,000 currently worth Sh4
million while Mr Oduor-Otieno acquired 509,180 shares now valued at Sh12
million — making them top shareholders among the lenders’ directors and
executives. The two have also entered the investor registry when local
high net worth and foreign investors are increasingly looking at
directors’ share dealing to gauge the outlook of the firms.
Though the two CEOs’ shareholding pales in
comparison with the shares that the CEOs of Cooperative and Equity hold
in their banks, analysts regard the insider buys as symbolic.
“Few people are better placed to evaluate a
company’s prospects than those who actually run it, which is why many
investors regard directors’ share dealings as a key indicator of future
prospects,” said an analysts at Kestrel Capital who sought anonymity.
“The CEOs of KCB and Barclays Bank were more keen to demonstrate this
fact through their share purchases”.
Equity’s chief executive James Mwangi owns 127.7
million shares or 3.45 per cent of the bank, while his counterpart at
Cooperative Bank, Gideon Muriuki, holds 50.1 million shares or 1.43 per
cent of the company.
It’s not clear whether Mr Oduor-Otieno bought the
shares through the open market at Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) or
via KCB’s Employee Share Option Scheme (ESOP) through which staff
acquired shares worth Sh18. 4 million at Sh18.62 a piece, according to
the bank’s 2011 annual report. KCB’s shares stood at Sh23.75 at the
close of trading on Friday.
Mr Mohamed is believed to have bought the shares
through the Nairobi bourse since the bank does not have an ESOP and its
executives only participated in the share option scheme managed by its
parent company, Barclays Plc, which owns 68.5 per cent of the Kenyan
unit.
His purchase of the shares comes in a year when Mr
Mohamed had expressed his intention to quit the bank after he applied
for the position of commissioner-general of the Kenya Revenue Authority
(KRA). The head of the country’s tax agency Michael Waweru was retiring.
The agency’s top post went to John Njiraini.
Barclays Bank of Kenya said after the appointment that Mr Mohamed would
remain as chief executive officer, adding that he applied for the
taxman’s job following internal consultations with the board and
Barclays Plc.
Barclays Bank used to be Kenya’s most profitable
bank, but it lost its position to Equity Bank and KCB last year and now
Standard Chartered Bank overtook it in profitability in the three months
to March this year.
Barclays Bank of Kenya on Wednesday announced a 28.1 per cent increase in net profit to Sh1.96 billion
on higher interest income while Stanchart on Thursday said its net
profit in the same period increased 41 per cent to Sh2.3 billion on a
faster growth of its loan book
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