http://af.reuters.com/ar...s/idAFJOE72900920110310

Now we know what to expect from KK.

The company warned that government involvement in the industry, in the form of setting pump prices, had created a challenging and uncertain operating environment.

"This interference by the government may become a threat to the industry as margins cannot be predicted and may be interpreted negatively by investors," Total said.

With unpredictable margins it's best to keep oil stocks for now

Nice trajectory in profit growth, but in absolute terms (EPS, Dividend Yield etc), Nothing to write home about.

FS, I take that back. I was being rather cynical today given the way the market is acting and I kind of dismissed Total in a rather peremptory fashion.

Total's results are indeed something to write home about ,now that I have studied them more closely. Diluted EPS (taking into account the preference shares)is 3.07 compared to 1.62. This is a MASSIVE improvement. However, this of course includes some gains from the sale of the unwanted Chevron assets.

The DPS though not exactly unexpected is rather dissapointing at 1.05 for a company where 2.50 had become A GIVEN. Total is paying down the debt that was used to purchase Chevron's assets, so I guess it will stay there for a while. I will only buy into Total when this is almost over then I know I can expect 2.50 or more.

BTW, Total saved me during the GFC in 2009, so perhaps I should give it a little more respect. I was able to sell it at around 30, proceeds of which I used to buy into some shares like MSC and Kenol that had really bitten the dust. The problem is that it is still stuck at the same price range while I managed to sell of the likes of MSC, which I am now buying again at almost 1/2 the price.

My EPS figure of 3.07 is indeed diluted. Total has 175,028,706 ordinary shares BUT issued an additional 123,478,000 preference shares as part of the financing of the Chevron assets purchase. The Prefs have all the rights of the ordinaries, SAVE for voting rights. Hence, I did indeed take this into account in my computations.

I have also calculated the "normalised" EPS as Kshs 2.51 to eliminate the impact of the 255 million gain on the sale of excess Chevron assets. I have assumed the 255 million is before tax and applied the 34% tax level implied by the tax level on the PBT.

Note: I am NOT a buyer of Total as the price is just too sticky for me, which I understand is the main attraction for some of its shareholders.

Mwanahisa, point taken. Smart moves there. I dont speculate – I think I’d be pathetic at it. I hold for long. My bad buys are really bad and my good buys are really good. Got stocks at prices I am yet to see here).
I value the stability of this stock. Remains to see how the regulatory environment, activities of our north african brothers and the weakening shilling will impact on the sector.