- Kenya Airways remains in the red as loss hits historic USD290.8 million
- Kenya: Ruto urges German enterprises to invest in MSMEs
- Tanzania filmmakers’ quest to nab billions from global movie fans
- Diageo buys additional shares in EABL to become its leading shareholder
- Africa conference to discuss power affordability and access
- U.S. investment in Tanzania to grow after Samia’s policy shift
- Bamburi Cement appoints new CEO amidst dwindling profits
- Airtel Money partners with Prudential Uganda to launch affordable health insurance
Mergers & Acquisitions
- Global deal activity down 27.5 percent Month-on-Month (M-o-M) and 46.7 percent Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) in January 2023.
- All the deal types under coverage witnessed massive double-digit decline
- According to the data, a total of 3,667 deals* were announced globally during January 2023, which is a decline of 27.5 percent compared to 5,055 deals announced during the previous month and a massive 46.7 percent Y-o-Y (Year on Year) decline over January 2022.
Mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and venture financing deal activity is off to a slow start in 2023 globally as the first month of the year itself saw a significant contraction in deals volume according to the latest data from GlobalData, data and analytics company.
According to the data, a total of 3,667 deals were announced globally during January 2023, which is a decline of 27.5 percent compared to 5,055 deals announced during the previous month and a massive 46.7 …
This comes after the National Treasury exempted the digital lender from a law limiting individual shareholding in microfinance to 25 per cent.
In a gazette notice signed by the Cabinet Secretary National Treasury, Ukur Yatani, the San-Francisco based fintech has been exempted from Section 19 of the Microfinance Act (for 4 years through 2025).
Currently, individuals or single entities are barred from holding more than a 25 per cent stake in a microfinance institution.…
- The game has been acquired for an undisclosed price in the “low seven figures.”
- This adds to the publications growing portfolio of word games including The Crossword, The Mini, and Spelling Bee
- As of December 2021, The NYT had over one million games subscriptions
It has now become common for one to come across a post on different social media platforms with the title Wordle accompanied by a specific figure and what appears to be a strange-looking yellow, green and black graph.
This growing phenomenon is courtesy of a puzzle known as Wordle created by Brooklyn-based software engineer Josh Wardle in October 2021.
The game initially created for Wardle and his partner Ms. Palak Shah has now been purchased by the New York Times (NYT) Company. According to the NYT, the game has been acquired for an undisclosed price in the “low seven figures.”
Read: Piecing the Puzzle of African …
Kenyan Companies now looking to file mergers and exemptions will now be expected to access these services online following a move by the Competition Authority of Kenya to fully automate technical services.
This has been done by the authority in a bid to enhance its service delivery. Registering restrictive trade practices, abuse of buyer power and consumer complaints will also be expected to be done online on the Case Management Systems (CMS), “E-filing Portal”.
The portal was developed to meet the technical needs of the Authority, bench-marked against e-filing solutions rolled out by other agencies and taking into consideration the recommendations of our stakeholders.
Since July 1, 2019, the Authority has been receiving and processing applications lodged through the E-filing Portal which is accessible via the link: https://competition.cak.go.ke:444/
Reduction of turnaround time:
The automated system has resulted in a reduction in the time taken to process files since there is …
By the time Safaricom launched M-Pesa payments in 2007, the market for digital payment in Africa was barely scratched. With poor internet connections, defragmented payments systems, and a non-existent online-based customer base, the continent was in darkness.
In 2006—prior to the launch of M-PESA, the leading local mobile money transfer service—only 18.5 percent of Kenyans used formal services (i.e., mostly bank accounts), 8.1 percent used semi-formal services (such as those provided by microfinance institutions), 35.0 percent used the informal sector (rotating savings and credit associations), and no less than 38.3 percent were completely excluded.
A decade later, the industry has expanded rapidly, giving birth to new entrants who have pushed the worth of this sector to billions of dollars and other billions exchanged through various platforms. These include the use of mobile money, credit cards, virtual cards, instant bank transfers, and QR codes.
The global digital payments market size is …
Kenya’s top commercial law firm MMC Africa Law has teamed up with Africa’s international law firm ASAFO & CO to form MMC ASAFO, in a merger likely to shake the continental space.
In order to provide a unique and integrated offering of top-tier legal services exclusively dedicated to the African continent, the MMC ASAFO team is based in different offices, with a balanced presence in France and in the major African business hubs of Nairobi, Abidjan, Casablanca and Johannesburg.
The merged entities are keen tap on the African Continental Free Trade Area which came into effect this year, congregating over 1.2 billion people in the world’s largest free trade zone.
READ ALSO:How East African businesses are going to lead the AFCTA
According to MMC ASAFO East Africa Team Leader Edward Muriu, African economies are among the fastest growing in the world today with a powerful industrial revolution which is …
TRACE, the global urban music television, and entertainment network have finalized the acquisition of a 70-percent stake in Qwetu Radio for an undisclosed fee.
The deal that commenced with talks in September 2018, now gives Trace a foothold in the highly competitive urban radio entertainment segment in Kenya. Following the conclusion of the acquisition, Trace has now set up its East African hub in Westlands in Nairobi that will be led by Danny Mucira as the MD for the East Africa cluster.
Trace also launched the newly branded Trace Radio 95.3 FM, a music-only radio station. According to Olivier Laouchez, Co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Trace worldwide, the company inherits Qwetu Radio’s estimated 4% market share in the urban music and entertainment category in Kenya.
“Our vision is to increase this, to become the music radio market leader in Kenya by 2022. With Trace Radio 95.3, we are …
Nigeria’s largest retail lender Access Bank acquired Kenya’s Transnational Bank starting its plans to open shop in all major Eastern Africa markets.
The bank is in the process of acquiring 93.57 per cent shareholding in Kenya’s private owned Transnational Bank at an undisclosed fee as its further eyes Tanzania and Uganda.
The Kenyan acquisition is expected to be concluded in the next 30 to 60 days as it awaits regulatory approvals.
The bank said it was seeking to expand in the region through acquisitions and setting up greenfield operations so as to deepen competition for customers with local rivals.
The lender said it had drawn a five-year plan from 2018-2022 which seeks to raise its retail and wholesale banking business and position itself as the world’s most respected African bank.
Access Bank controls over $13 billion worth of assets and over 27 million customers. In its plan to track record …
