To the business media:

"Following the successful merger of I&M Bank & City Trust Limited, the newly formed company I&M Holding Limited will tomorrow- June 25th, 2013 list at the NSE’s main investment market segment. You are cordially invited to bell ringing event which will mark the beginning of trading in shares of the new company. Here are the event details:

Event: I&M Holdings Limited Bell Ringing
When: Tuesday, June 25th, 2013
Time: 7.45am

The event will be attended by among others, Dr. Harun Sirima, Deputy Governor, CBK.

Kindly provide coverage.

Best regards,

Mike Omuodo
Media Director"

Listing 25th June
Investor Briefing 26th June
AGM on 27th June (though this is interesting. At this point there is only ONE shareholder of I&M Bank). The AGM/EGM for I&M Holdings will be later. Remember the year end for I&M Holdings (aka City Trust) is 31st July. I am sure an EGM is required to tie up all these threads including:

1) Change I&M Holdings year end to 31st Dec
2) Announce a dividend for I&M Holdings
3) Other changes as required by the new Finance Act

I do not understand why the Investor Briefing was not held BEFORE the Listing. D&B must have mis-advised them since you want to 'sell' the firm/shares to the larger Investment Community especially Fund Managers before the Listing. Any significant announcements/disclosures can be made before the Listing as well that might be beneficial to the prospects of the share price.

It's a Listing By Introduction so there is no 'listing price' but here are my thoughts:

1) 2012 was weak for Kenya (the largest bank in the portfolio) but 2013 is looking better for Kenya [post-elections]
2) BCR [#2 or #3 bank] was bought in 2012 so the process to integrate continues in 2013. This also means increased Kenya-Rwanda as well as Tanzania-Rwanda business staying within the group.
3) The CEO said they are looking at acquiring a Uganda bank OR starting a new operation. I think this will remain a smallish operation mainly to capture cross-border trade of its existing customers between Kenya-Uganda as well as Rwanda-Uganda.
4) Mauritius had some funky losses in 1Q 2013. I have a feeling that ship has been tightened up for a rebound in 2Q 2013. Not sure if the losses are all cash or accounting mark-downs.
5) 2012 & 2013 has seen the Kenya branches & scope increased from a "Nairobi" bank to a country-wide bank. Not as wide as one would like but expansion into Kisii, Nakuru, Eldoret, Nyeri, etc is happening slow but sure.

IFC may end up as a shareholder which gives I&M access to IFC credit lines which allow it to expand its reach to more customers. It's client base is growing larger as are the clients.

Pricing: It may seem pricier than some banks on a PER basis at the moment but that is coming off a weak 2012 so the growth in 2013 may be stronger. I am looking at 120-ish though we know the market is 'weak' at the moment.

Finally, I think the bank may be taken over in the near future. Why? It has the 'foreign' shareholders like Proparco, DEG & possibly IFC who have the heft to market it to global giants who want in on Kenya (& EAC) as a 'corporate bank' not a mass-market bank. Having a foothold in Kenya via I&M Bank can give banks like HSBC, etc the ability to finance local deals including infrastructure.

@vvs. you think in 3D! and the takeover angle, makes alot of sense.
a listing (by introduction) of 120, would be a blow for some of us. im hoping 100 max. but they should have said by now surely. like tranny we knew it was 50 way before.

SIB Fair Value: 111.87

http://www.businessdaily...6/-/rjae21/-/index.html

“We initiate coverage on I&M Holdings at a fair value of Sh111.87. Against our fair value, forward (financial year 2013) price earnings and price-to-book ratios stand at 10.2 times and 2.0 times, respectively. On total assets, I&M Bank ranks sixth in our universe of nine listed banks,” a research report by Standard Investment Bank (SIB) said.

SIB added that they see I&M Bank as one of the lenders offering better scope to deliver higher net interest margins (NIMs) as focus remains on growing local currency assets, and over a three-year forecast period predict the bank’s loan growth to outperform the industry average.

I&M’s profit after tax, which stood at Sh3.86 billion in 2012, is projected to grow to Sh4.29 billion in 2014 and Sh5.04 billion in 2015.

The bank’s assets are also projected to rise from Sh144 billion in 2012 to Sh168 billion in 2014, and further to Sh205 billion in 2015.

Following the listing, key shareholders of the new entity being Minard Holdings Limited, Tecoma Limited, Ziyungi Limited, and Mnana Limited, have agreed to lock in 50 per cent of their holdings for two years.