Tuesday, November 28, 2006

The EAST AFRICAN AGREES WITH THE SAFARICOM POST

The Current issue of the East African summarizes what was in my earlier posts on the Safaricom/Mobitelea issue.
-http://pesatu.blogspot.com/2006/11/extremely-simplified-safaricomvodafone.html#links

-http://pesatu.blogspot.com/2006/11/safaricom-mobitelea-ask-sarin-here-is.html#links

They have a better graph of the shareholder structure.

However, the graph showing the present day shareholder structure of SAFARICOM K Ltd. has an error. It shows Telkom Kenya Ltd. having a 60% stake in Safaricom and Vodafone K ltd with a 35% stake in Safaricom instead of a 40% stake.

The 87.5% stake in VKL by Vodafone Plc. and 12.5% stake by Mobitelea ventures is accurate.

The article also says that the Parliamentary Investment Committee (PIC) has summoned the Registrar of Companies and the Safaricom M.D. to explain the matter.

The following issues could thwart the PIC effort:

1.Mobitelea Ventures could be registered offshore, so no record of it may be at the Kenyan Company registry.

2.Safaricom officials may claim to only know about Safaricom Kenya Ltd. matters i.e. they are not Vodafone Plc or Vodafone K ltd employees. As such they can’t shed any light on Mobitelea or Vodafone Kenya Ltd. Shareholding.

It is akin to asking Gerald Mahinda(MD -EABL) to comment on SABMiller Plc's affairs because SABMiller Plc has a 20% stake in Kenya Breweries Ltd(an EABL subsidiary).He can't since neither he nor EABL are members of SABMiller Plc.

NB: the article is in the current Print Edition and may take a while to appear online.

7 comments:

coldtusker said...

Apparently, Mobiltelea was a Telkom subsidiary...

Not the first time the "file" disappears in the Registrars office...

Remember the winnie & artur company files???

odegle said...

everyone seems to be hooked to the 5% ownership by mobiltelea. what of the remaining 60% are we sure that telkom actually owns that? Pesa tu, it seems that your thoughts on the shareholdings is gaining considerable plagiarism, can you give us your thoughts on the 60% as well. i speculate that the sea may be deeper than we see it.

pesa tu said...

@Coldtusker: Now thats the kind of evidence i meant.

@Odegle:The 60% stake is safe.
PLAGIARISM-Interesting thing is that blogs seem to be driving Kenyan Businesss news(PRINT) instead of the other way round.
I hope the biz reporters acknowledge the online sources of their BREAKING NEWS.

coldtusker said...

Pesa - Get real... these files disappear precisely coz of fraud & corruption!

You know its BS when you ask for "evidence" that is locked up in moi's bedside drawer even when he travels to Germany to get his heart checked out!

They are THIEVES... If legit, then just tell us!

pesa tu said...

@Coldtusker:You suffer from a severe case of MOI-phobia.He's the boogeyman of your dreams/nightmares.You see him behind everything that happens.

By the way, i hope u r seeeing the legal hurdles set out in my posts on Safaricom e.g. as far as Kenyan Laws stand there are only 2 shareholders in Safaricom.

Will do another post on Safaricom with a solution to the mystery

John Kay said...

To put a stop to this MOBITELEA crazy debate once and for all, I want to say here and now that it is an acronym standing for MOi BIwot TELecommunications East Africa. Since Moi is an elder statesman who maintained peace in our country for 24 years, let's let him enjoy his retirement.

pesa tu said...

I think u r one of those MOI obsessed people.It may be someone else.Do understand the shareholder structure b4 u comment