Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore. FILE PHOTO | NMG
The stock market Tuesday shrugged off news of Safaricom chief
executive Bob Collymore medical leave with the counter slightly edging
up.
The benchmark NSE-20 share index gained 1.49 per cent to close at 3729.62 points largely uplifted by Safaricom.
The index has in recent days recovered after weeks of falling as investors hedged against political risk.
Safaricom
shares that accounted for nearly a fifth or 19 per cent of the total
trading Tuesday closed at Sh25.50 a rise of 0.99 per cent from Sh25.25
at close of trading Monday.
The telecoms firm, which
is Kenya’s biggest by market value, on Monday, disclosed Mr Collymore,
59, a Guyana-born British citizen had taken medical leave to receive
specialised treatment for a “number of months”.
Company
chairman Nicholas Ng’ang’a made the announcement in a circular to
employees, but did not disclose the nature of Mr Collymore’s sickness.
Weighing
in on the development, experts said the uncertainty associated with the
sudden announcement of medical leave of a senior executive hits some
firms harder than others, and the level of understanding differs widely.
Globally, Google and Apple are two of the biggest tech companies to experience the effects of CEO illness.
When
Apple founder Steve Jobs announced that he had pancreatic cancer in
January 2011, Apple investors panicked. His insistence that the cancer
had been removed failed to calm their nerves.
Apple
shares continued to tumble and as two more bouts of medical leave were
announced, investors feared that without his involvement, the company’s
creative edge would be lost.
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