Eveready Shareholders Vote to Sell Off Company’s Land in Nakuru

Eveready was among Monday’s top gainers following last week’s shareholders vote to sell off the company’s land in Nakuru, in a move that marks yet another low for the erstwhile giant manufacturer.

The 18.5 acre piece of land is where the Eveready’s closed factory sits, including all its mothballed production equipment. The battery manufacturing plant shut its doors in 2014.

However, not all shareholders at Thursday’s annual general meeting were for the idea to dispose of the land. The minority thought it was better to pursue the earlier announced venture into real estate development instead.

“The piece of land together with other assets have been valued at 1.29 billion shillings — 46 percent of the company’s assets,” said managing director Jackson Mutua. “These funds would help Eveready get off the debt web, build headquarters, provide working capital for our distribution business and pay shareholders dividends.” He added.

Equities

Market activity edged up on Monday following increased movements around Safaricom. The NSE 20 Share index dropped 2.41 points to end the day at 3648.71 points from 3642.68 points earlier while the NASI decreased to 138.15 points from 138.17 points before.

The NSE 25 Share index added 6.03 points to close the day at 3648.71 points. Market capitalization changed by a meagre 0.02 percent to 2001.506 billion shillings from 2001.82 billion shillings on Friday, whilst equity turnover surged significantly to 1.01 billion shillings from 0.34 billion shillings previously owing to a considerable increase in the number of shares traded.

Currencies

The Kenyan shilling lost ground albeit slightly on Monday against the US dollar as it closed the day at a mean of 101.27 shillings, down from an average of 101.25 shillings previously following dollar demand pressure from energy importers.

The local currency gained furthermore against the Sterling but slid marginally against the Euro. The economic data that has been released following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union has generally been rather positive and typically we would see the Pound gaining vs the Euro but Sterling’s movement seems to be driven by political uncertainty.