Mukiha,

I have had my eyes on this one for some time now. The reason for lack of interest in the stock are:

The company that is traded on the stock exchange is UNGA LIMITED,the company that makes Jogoo,EXE and all other Unga products is UNGA HOLDINGS. ( I may have mixed the names up,but the company in which you can buy shares owns only 65% of the company that makes the actual products). The other 35% is owned by Seaboard corporation who also have a right to increase their stake in the company to 50%. Seaboard corporation also manages the company for which they are paid a management fee that is dollar denominated. There is a minimum charge for management but there is no maximum. Several years ago Unga was on its death bed and when Seaboard came along they basically revived it by injecting a lot of their own money. If you look at the books you will discover that Seaboard is actually Unga's largest creditor and if they were to convert this debt into equity they would almost own the whole company.
This not withstanding with more than 9 billion shillings in revenue and as you correctly mentioned it is hard to ignore company that makes staple food. The total number of paid up shares in the publicly traded company are slightly over 70 million. Last year even after Seaboard had taken its fees and accounted for their share of the final profits as minority interests the earnings per share were more than 3 shillings. At 8 shillings my interest in the stock is not so much capital appreciation for now but I feel that in another year or so this company can afford to pay 1 or 2 shillings as dividends at the least. At 2 shillings this would be less than 150 million shillings for a company with revenue of 9 billion. This would however be to an investor 25% return on investment at the current price !!!! Not bad. Then after that you just hold the stock and like a BAT shareholder never worry about the share price and just wait for the dividend cheque year in year out till people stop eating Ugali.

Weusi wa nywele za mshtakiwa zaonyesha ujinga alio nao

I am not for ugali for now. This company has lost a golden opportunity. They had opportunity to import cheaper maize but it seems not to be translating to profits. I dont trust the SA management.

@Fundament

When did management change. May be it is their bias towards sourcing from SA. Whichever the case,the guys have a weak market strategy. To me,they are akin to a receiver manager- no clue what business they are in. I have a serious problem with the pricing of their imports and thus inventory.

Had an interest,but couldn't get a hold of their financials. Iko website?

The thicker the thigh the sweeter the pie.

@stonemimi; those are quite serious allegations....transfer pricing etc. Any proof you can share with us?

Behind the gardens...Behind the wall...Under the tree (Including: Red...Dark Blue...Yellow)

At this particular point in time,I seriously think there are better stocks one can invest in... Unless you are into speculation/ gambling.

Unga profits drop as costs eat into revenue

The thicker the thigh the sweeter the pie.

.....see how it compares with the rest of the market...

11 May 09 NSE20 = 2830
10 Jul 09 NSE20 = 3296
02 Oct 09 NSE20 = 3037
11 mar 10 NSE20 = 3965
21 Apr 10 NSE20 = 4148

Does Unga have a life of its own or is it just following the crowd? Your decision; I am just watching from the sidelines

From the moment that i knew how to read the market report in the nation 'high' 'low' 'previous' '52 weeks' i have only seen one direction in the unga stock price-down. Anyone knows if they have been growing their balance sheet all these years?

Do these guys have a website?