African Business Magazine published the Top 250 African companies by market value (dollars) and 10 Kenyan companies make it on the list. The usual boneheads from South Africa, Morocco & Egypt dominate the Top 50, while only Safcom and EABL make it to Top 100. The 10 Kenyan companies are below by rank;

Company 2010 ranking / 2009 ranking
safcom 39 / 55
eabl 74 / 65
barclays 121 / 100
bamburi 127 / 119
scbk 147 / 149
kcb 150 / 155
equity 152 / 151
kengen 190 / 179
BAT 224 / 239
Kq 228

Impressive performance from Safaricom moving up 16 places to 39, but other Kenyan firms did okay. KQ surprizingly made it to the list for Top 250, kudos. Maybe a poor showing from Nigerians considering economists expect Nigeria's economy to overtake South Africa within the next three years (2013). Nigeria's top company First Bank of Nigeria was only 2 places above Safaricom at 37.

What's good about this issue is that the magazine gives us comparisons against the Top 25 companies in Asia, Latin America & the Middle east. Top 15 companies in East Africa had the usual suspects, the always present imfamous 'three' Mauritian titans and the other titans in Tanzania and Uganda. See the top 15 below.

Safaricom (Kenya) - $2,776 mn
EA Breweries (Kenya) - $1,568 mn
Mauritius Commercial Bank (Mauritius) - $1,374 mn
State Bank of Mauritius (Mauritius) - $1,030 mn
Barclays Bank (Kenya) - $884 mn
Bamburi Cement (Kenya) - $768 mn
New Mauritius Hotel (Mauritius) - $742 mn
Stan. Chart. Bank (Kenya) - $608 mn
KCB (Kenya) - $580 mn
Equity Bank (Kenya) - $573 mn
Stanbic Bank (Uganda) - $434 mn
KenGen (Kenya) - $420 mn
BAT (Kenya) - $311 mn
Tanzania Breweries (Tanzania) - $308 mn
Kenya Airways (Kenya) - $305 mn

Definately a good issue of African Business Magazine to read. Has interesting article on tourism potential in Kenya, BRICS leading global recovery, FDI inflows to Africa, interview with a brilliant economist 'Joseph stiglitz', among others. Anyone interested in the Fortune 500 and Global 500 Ranks for 2005-2008 can email me.

whoops, did I write 'infamous', my mistake I meant 'famous'. and yeah those Mauritius companies are run well and banks still well capitalized. I don't know what kind of competition the banks (MCB and SBM) face.

So vvs I gotta few questions 4 ya.

Air Mauritius, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways & SAA. Which is the most efficient run airline? (granted SAA and EA are govt owned)...I personally stay away from investing in airlines, but u think kq stock has priced in the fuel hedging...what's ur target price?

I'm sitting on a fair amount of cash and SIMS are offering me 9% on their money market fund, should I bite?

I have been holding City Trust since 2007 and I know u follow I&M Bank pretty closely, what's ur take on I&M in 2010.

KQ - operations will do well... The hedges the same way BUT these can vary from month to month... so tuff to say... I have KQ... I am sitting on them... does that answer your question?

Well I suppose it does answer the question on KQ. Though I have no taste for 4 it...I think I'll buy TPS now. As for City Trust, they've been trying to keep up with I&M Bank capitalization plans...i mean the amount of capital that has been injected into that bank over the past three years is pretty huge for a company as small as City to keep up with. I think I'll sell...lock in the profits, cos the dividend policy aint that great. I&M proposed about 424 mn in dividends so City gets about 8.93% of that (less WH tax). This is what bugs me about City Trust they get about 32 mn from dividends then pay low dividends of about 5-6 mn, so just what do they do with the 25 mn? Same story every year.