ABSA- Coming soon to Kenya

ABSA-(South African Banking Group) has successfully raised R3 Billion to purchase Barclays Plc Sub-saharan operations including the Kenyan operations. Read more here.
Barclays acquired the majority stake in ABSA in 2005.

LORD OF WAR
Just watched Lord of War starring Nicholas Cage. Its about an arms dealer Yuri Orlov(Nicholas Cage) and his business around the world. Especially Liberia and Sierra Leone.The bad guy is loosely based on Charles Taylor. Good movie but has lots of the usual stereotypes about Africans: AIDS, ignorance, theft.......etc.

BARCLAYCARD $300?

I called Barclaycard to enquire about an online transaction. The Customer care staff informed me that Barclaycard(in Kenya) only allows online(internet) transactions upto US$300(without contacting cardholder). Above$300 the Cardholder must be contacted for authorisation.

So theoretically your risk for any online fraud is capped at $ 300. NOTE: I said theoretically because REAL LIFE EVENTS DIFFER from the best laid plans.

THE OTHER IPO WINNERS
The other day I went to my stockbroker to transact some biz (no not to buy KENGEN shares). I was surprised the queue and extra staff to handle the new IPO buyers. It struck me that the brokers are going to come out of this IPO thrice lucky:
1. They get to earn a Commission for all the shares bought through them.

2. They get to trade for 24 days on your money before handing it to KCB (receiving Bank). With a large sum of money you can do a lot e.g. Overnight Lending.

3. When the excess funds are refunded on May they can convince the “New Shareholders” to buy more shares and make more commissions