Jan Schalkwijk of Africa Capital Group traveled to Nairobi recently to meet with the management teams of several large Kenyan companies. The following is his take on three of the Nairobi Securities Exchange’s most prominent banks.
Read More...May 16, 2013 By 4 Comments
May 14, 2013 By 2 Comments
The Common Yellow Crane
Jonathan Kruger, an Africa Portfolio Manager, recently traveled overland from Nairobi to Cape Town in his native South Africa. The two-month journey took him through East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia) and Southern Africa (Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa). One of his aims was to experience at grass roots what is driving Africa’s economic future. He shared the following observations and impressions with InvestingInAfrica.net.
Read More...April 9, 2013 By 5 Comments
New ETF Makes Nigerian Stocks More Accessible Than Ever
I literally jumped out of my chair last week when Jan Schalkwijk told me a new Nigeria ETF had just listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Why was I bouncing around my office like I’d hit a buzzer-beating jump shot?
Because, at this moment, I believe the Global X Nigeria Index ETF is one of the most accessible, pure, and cost-efficient ways for US retail investors to tap into the Sub-Saharan growth story.
Read More...April 4, 2013 By 4 Comments
Kenya’s Safaricom Is Set to Dial Up Profits After Long Price War
Jan Schalkwijk, CFA, portfolio manager at Africa Capital Group, recently visited the Nairobi-headquarters of Safaricom, Kenya’s largest mobile phone company, and had the opportunity to sit down with CFO John Tombleson. Here, he briefs us on the meeting.
Read More...April 2, 2013 By 6 Comments
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange’s New Website Is Fantastic
After a bewilderingly long, one-year hiatus, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange once again has a website.
It was definitely worth the wait.
Among African stock exchange websites, the ZSE has, in my view, moved from worst to first. Here’s why.
Read More...March 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Afrinvestor’s Journal: Witnessing the Kenyan Election
Jan Schalkwijk is a Portfolio Manager with Africa Capital Group, an asset management firm that specializes in African stocks. The following is an account of his recent trip to Kenya and Burundi.
As the plane began its descent into Nairobi the evening of March 5th, I struck up a conversation with the KLM flight attendant. I always enjoy the opportunity to speak a little Dutch, which is not a daily occurrence for me these days.
As part of the usual small talk, I asked her where in Nairobi the flight crew was staying. She replied that KLM security had advised them to stay at the airport this time in light of security concerns surrounding the elections that had been held the day prior.
It was then that I mentally connected the news articles I had been reading about the Kenyan elections with the reality of being there, at ground zero of what could either be a repeat of the 2007 election violence or something more hopeful: a watershed moment for Kenya — a peaceful transition of power.
Read More...March 26, 2013 By 12 Comments
Who Else Wants to Invest in Nigerian Stocks?
In case you missed it, the Nigerian Stock Exchange is making investors wealthy of late.
Thanks to a raft of reforms and a growing realization of the investment opportunities in Africa’s most populous nation, the MSCI Nigeria Index is up 78.6% over the past 12 months.
And this bull run looks like it may have some real legs. The market remains well below its five-year high. The five largest companies on the exchange have an average P/E ratio of 15.4 in spite of them averaging earnings growth of 40.6%. And 23 foreign portfolio managers are poised to dive into the market.
I’m guessing some of you would like to do the same. Unfortunately, the market isn’t as easily accessible as its larger counterpart in Johannesburg. So how exactly can a non-resident invest in Nigerian stocks?
Read More...March 12, 2013 By 10 Comments
Kenya’s Dividend Kings: Two Stocks for Income Investors
It’s tough to beat a company that pays out a regular dividend.
They generate income for shareholders. They typically boast sharp management teams. And, historically, their shares have outperformed their non-dividend-paying counterparts.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange is chock full of dividend stocks. Almost all companies listed on the market presently pay a dividend.
But not all dividend stocks are created equal. Some don’t yield much in relation to their price. Others pay out so much of their earnings that it hampers their future growth. And some disappoint shareholders with frequent dividend cuts.
So, which Kenyan stocks offer the most substantial, reliable, and growing income stream?
Let’s take a closer look.
Read More...March 5, 2013 By 9 Comments
The Ghana Stock Exchange Is Crushing It (And Here’s Why)
What’s gotten into the Ghana Stock Exchange?
The MSCI Ghana Index has soared of late. It’s now 37% higher than it was at the beginning of the year. Think about that. That’s 37% in just over two months!
Let’s see what’s behind the rally and which stocks have done the most to drive the market higher. The following is a countdown of the top seven performing Ghanaian stocks and their US Dollar-adjusted gains.
Read More...February 28, 2013 By 7 Comments
Will Kenya’s Election Be Peaceful?
The upcoming Kenyan general election isn’t far from the thoughts of many Africa investors these days. It’s easy to understand why. Violence following the 2007 poll left hundreds dead, thousands homeless, and temporarily derailed the region’s economic development.
The World Bank estimates that Kenya’s economic growth will reach 5.0% this year if the elections come off peacefully. But if post-election tumult erupts once more, that rate is forecast to brake to 3.0%.
Given the stakes for the Kenyan people, I approached a number of market watchers with boots on the ground and asked them what they expected to transpire.
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