K-Rep shelves IPO plans but says it is solid

SMALL and medium sized enterprises lender K-Rep has given up plans to
raise cash through the Nairobi Securities Exchange, at least not in the
next three or four years. Managing director Albert Ruturi said the initial plans to list in 2009 hit a cropper after the bank made a Sh210 million loss in 2008. The
loss meant that the bank did not meet the Capital Markets Authority
requirement that stipulates that for a company to float its shares to
the public through the NSE, it must have made profits for five years
in a row.

The massive loss was attributed to the post election violence since majority of the bank's clients are low-income entrepreneurs located in neighbourhoods that were badly affected by the chaos. "Not
in the near future," said Ruturi yesterday on a question of if the bank
is planning to list its shares any time soon. "If we make profits for
the next three or four years, we can go back to CMA."

Ruturi
however added that the bank does not need to access the NSE now because
it is adequately capitalised. It's capital base is estimated at Sh1.3
billion.The bank has adopted a no-dividend policy instead  ploughing
back the cash to its operations.

He was speaking
during a re-branding ceremony for the bank that will see it take on a
new look and a new culture among staff. The rebrand aims to transform
the bank's employee perception of its nature of business as well as
refocusing some of the product offerings and services. The
bank said it targets to open 20 more branches in the next three years.
The MD said the bank is also in the process of transferring its ATMs
from the Kenswitch network to Pesapoint to improve the quality of
services.