The project is expected to attract more foreign retailers into the Kenyan market. Garden City is likely to send prices skyrocketing in neighbouring areas along the Thika highway.

Charles Kibiru, the managing director of Thika Greens, a golf estate located in Thika, reckons that Kenya should expect similar investments along the highway.

“Thika highway is the place to go. It is a hinterland and foreign investors should put their money here. We welcome the Actis investment because it will bring services closer to the people and help decongest the Nairobi central business district,” said Kibiru.

The project, he added, will also lead to job creation and economic development by attracting foreign brands to Kenya.

The groundbreaking of the Garden City will take place in December with completion targeted for May 2014.

Moody's has cut Italy's
credit rating, warning that the country was likely to see a sharp rise in borrowing costs.
The rating was cut two
notches to Baa2 from A3,
two levels above junk status.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18824246

Kenyan Banks:
Don't get caught when the music stops
 It's been grand — Within our MEA banks universe, the Kenyan banks have been stronger outperformers in 2012. In our coverage universe, Equity Bank (EBL) and Kenya Commercial Bank are up 31% ytd and 38% ytd. The bank shares have been following the robust operating performance of the industry, which continues to defy the challenging macro-economic and social backdrop. As banks ultimately tend to reflect the macro, we think it is time for the market to pay attention to the risks.
 The market should be concerned about the following:
– Macro disconnect — Since 2007, real GDP growth has contracted twice, the CPI has been a yoyo, the currency has devalued 26%, rates have gone through the roof, and despite all of this, system profits have grown 27% p.a. and the NPL ratio improved to 4% in 2011 (from 11% in 2007) — this should concern us.
– Underprovisioned — We estimate that the six largest banks ('Big 6') may be under provisioned by KES20.8bn (49% of FY11 profits or 12% of FY11 equity).
– Overstated profits — We estimate that IAS 39 adjustments overstated the
profits of Equity Bank in 2007, KCB in 2011, Barclays Bank in 2009, Co-operative
Bank in 2008 and CFC Stanbic in 2008 by 15%, 19%, 23%, 10% and 23%,
respectively.
– Potential mortgage woes — After rising 3-fold since 2000, property prices were
up only 1.4% yoy at 1Q12 and the mortgage book now represents 8% of system
loans. The concern here is the 50% risk weighting on these exposures — the banks cannot afford to get caught in a bubble
– Liquidity mismatch — For the Big 6, 72% of their deposits have a contractual duration of less than 3 months while 80% of their loans have a duration of more than one year — this gap is widening and not shrinking, so it shouldn’t be overlooked.
 Equity Bank, Sell — We downgrade EBL to Sell (from Neutral) and reduce our target price to KES17/share (from KES19/share). We also lower our 2012, 2013 and 2014 EPS forecasts by 9%, 9% and 5% respectively.
 KCB, Neutral — We downgrade KCB to Neutral (from BUY) and reduce our target price to KES23/share (from KES27/share). We also lower our 2012, 2013 and 2014 EPS forecasts by 4%, 9% and 9%, respectively.