All about the Safaricom FY 2021 results
M-PESA revenues go above voice revenues for first time
Welcome to the Baobab Weekly, where we bring you a succinct summary of key business news from East Africa. This week, we cover the Safaricom FY21 results, delays in results publication at the NSE, and some key highlights from the Finance Bill 2021.
Safaricom FY21 Results: M-PESA Beats Voice
Safaricom reported its Full year 2021 with KES 68.7B profit after tax, a 6.8% drop from FY20. Total revenues were up 0.6% from KES 262.6B, with M-PESA bringing in more revenues (KES 82.65B) than voice (KES 82.55B) for the first time in the company’s history. This is mostly because Voice revenues decreased by a lot more than M-Pesa revenues did (-4.6% vs -2.1% ). The EBITDA and net profit margins came in at 50.8% and 31.3% respectively.
Other notable details:
Service revenue down 0.3% YoY to KES 250.4B
Both CAPEX and Opex were down 3.2%
EBIT was down 5.3% to KES 96B
Direct costs increased 7.1% to KES 80B
Operating costs dropped 3.2% to KES 46B.
69.2% market share in voice and 35.6% in fixed data
Mpesa app to launch soon
The company has also proposed a final dividend per share of KES 0.92 dividends per share amounting to KES 36.86B in addition to the KES 0.45 per ordinary share interim dividend amounting to KES 18B. Here is the history of Safaricom dividends over the years:
Find the company’s results booklet on our website here. In other news, Safaricom is holding talks with Amazon about the use of mobile-money service M-PESA on the e-commerce giant’s platform. It already has partnerships with Alibaba & Paypal.
More Delays at the NSE
Kenya Reinsurance Corporation, Express Kenya, and WPP Scangroup have this week announced delays in the publication of their FY 2020 audited financial statements. Kenya Re-Insurance has attributed the delay to a change in actuarial valuation methodology while Scangroup says the delay has been due to ongoing investigations surrounding management changes at the company. On the other hand, Express Kenya has cited challenges in the company’s main business in logistics occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Six companies at the Nairobi Securities Exchange have so far announced delays in the publication of their FY 2020 results. The Capital Markets (Securities) (Public Offers, Listing and Disclosures) Regulations, 2002 requires that listed companies should have published their FY 2020 audited financial statements by 30th April 2021
Highlights from the Finance Bill 2021
Some notable items from the Kenyan Finance Bill 2021:
Some notable changes in VAT include; Bread and LPG previously zero rated will now attract VAT at 16%. Infant milk & syringes previously tax-exempt will now attract VAT at 16%
Document retention under the Tax Procedures Act increased from the current 5 years to 7 years.
Excise duty changes: imported motorcycles. New rate: 15% of CIF[Current rate: Ksh 11,608.23/unit]; Imported jewelry. New rate: 10% [Current rate: NIL]; Betting. New rate: 20% of stake [Current rate: NIL]; Fees & commissions on loans. New rate: NIL [Current rate: 20%]
Capital Markets Tribunal as established in the Capital Markets Act to hear and determine appeals within ninety days from the date of filing of the appeal.
Amendment of CDSC Act to have securities accounts/CDS accounts opened in the name of a beneficial owner.
Wide range of medicaments, testing kits, laboratory reagents, ventilators, breathing appliances, food supplements listed as VAT exempt.
Contributions to the National Hospital Insurance Fund shall qualify for insurance relief at 15% of contributions capped at Ksh 60,000 per annum.
Sasini Releases 2021 Half-year Results
Sasini PLC, an NSE listed company released its half-year results. The company, which grows and processes agricultural products such as tea, coffee, avocado, and macadamia nuts, made a KES 191.86M profit before tax up from a KES 10.14M loss in the same period last year. Other highlights from the results:
Revenue up marginally to KES 2.02B
Profit after tax pf 122.2 million [Vs Loss of 13.1 million]
EPS of 0.52 [Vs (0.07) ]
Interim dividend of Kshs. 0.50
Find a link to the results here.
Other Noteworthy Items
Kenyan Treasury opened a tap sale on its May issues [FXD2/2019/15 & FXD1/2021/25] raising an additional Ksh 20 billion after accepting Ksh 20 billion in the first issue. The coupon rate is 12.734% for FXD2/2019/15 and 13.924% for FXD1/2021/25.
Listed lender KCB Group has given its subsidiary National Bank of Kenya a Ksh 3 billion long-term loan to help it meet minimum capital requirements. Still on KCB, the lender will spend Ksh 6 billion to acquire banks in Rwanda and Tanzania.
BAT Kenya held its 69th Annual General Meeting during the week and also paid a Ksh 41.50 final dividend for FY 2020. Here is a list of other upcoming AGMs for the month of May 2021:
The Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation(KDIC) began the liquidation of Charterhouse bank almost 15 years after the CBK placed it under statutory management.
Ethiopia’s sole mobile operator, the state-owned Ethio Telecom, launched a mobile phone-based financial service.
Kenyan pump prices for the next one month are as follows: Super petrol increases to Ksh 126.37 and diesel and kerosene remain unchanged.