🇰🇪 Nairobi Securities Exchange

The proposed acquisition by Vodacom Group of an effective 35% stake in Safaricom, Kenya’s leading integrated communications company, has cleared an important hurdle after Vodacom minority shareholders overwhelmingly voted in support of the transaction.

Kenyan firms can now sell shares in other countries without cross-listing after the the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) approved global depository receipts (GDRs) rules.

Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has assigned first-time B1/Not Prime global local-currency deposit ratings to Equity Bank Kenya Limited (Equity Bank) and the Co-operative Bank of Kenya Limited (Co-op Bank). Moody's has also assigned both banks Counterparty Risk (CR) Assessments of Ba3(cr)/Not Prime(cr), global foreign-currency deposit ratings of B2/Not Prime and b1 baseline credit assessments (BCAs) and Adjusted BCAs. On the Kenyan national scale, Moody's has assigned deposit ratings of Aa1.ke/KE-1 to Equity Bank and Aa2.ke/KE-1 to Co-op Bank. All long-term global scale deposit ratings carry a stable outlook.

Telecoms operator Safaricom (NSE: SCOM) has appointed KCB Group (NSE: KCB) as a trust account holder for its mobile financial service M-Pesa in a deal which will see the lender benefit from a pool of cheaper deposits.