Wazuans please contribute your ideas,im thinking of taking a loss from KenyaRe and spare some money to buy The Kenya power and lighting.Im thinking of getting rid some of government entities stocks after taking a stock of as from 2006 to date ..no progress as in as in share price upwards trend.Look at Kengen it has not moved much at all.National bank is falling all times,KenyaRe is constant.. Centum is struggling to come up .Finally do you guys think KPLC shares will be much diluted after split?????

Kwanza KPLC is going to be 50 percent owned by govt. NBK is going to be privatised. And what do you mean Centum is struggling to move? The counter has rallied this year.

Pkoli-how do you know so much about what will happen in future? All we need is another crony-based president and the Gichuru's will make a comeback.
Wanyina, I think if you are looking to compensate your losses in KenRe, you many need to think a little bit out fo the box.
I think the NSE is almost fully-valued and stock-picking is not the only the game in town

Guru, can you justify why that would be a good move??? I have a feeling your basing ur reasoning on the stock not the company. Because as a company, they are well positioned and extremely undervalued. infact,in Africa, they are in the top 5 Reinsuarers after Continental Re of nigeria. They are selling below book and have had premium growth in of about 9% over the last 5 years. Investment income has grown by the same.What's more interesting is their underwriting margins have been positive 4 times in the last 8yrs(half of the time), when aggregated, it brings an average margin of 2% on net earned premiums in the last 5 yrs. This doesn't include the investment income. Hence, i think this is a stock with an upward potential of about 20-50% in it. Its extremely undervalued. I think its the most undervalued stock on the NSE selling at 30% discount based on book of half year. SO if we attach a p.e of 8 on anticipated 2010 results, thats an upside of 30% not counting the usual dividend that is about 4%. i.e EPS of 2.32 and P.E of 8.
E.P.S of 2.32 is extremely conservative(actual may be ard 2.5). This brings the upside to about 18/-. And that would still be at or below book then. So in other-words, the downside is virtually nil while the upside can take care of itself.

@msimon and @mwanahisa you're taking me too seriously...

Its obvious i'm only joking

By the way @msimon your "good" analysis has brought out the fact that its performance compared to the other listed insurance firms is CRAP... So why the hell would any one buy it....

Price to book means nothing when management doesn't unlock value... JUST ASK THE AGRICULTURAL STOCKS...

@msimon, you are analysing Kenre like its a bank. Reinsurance business is hard to value. I know a lot of people in insurance who don't understand reinsurance. Kenre may look attractive on current valuations but you need to look at the potential risks and expected payout and then you realise its current value is just fine. There is a reason why its undervalued and a reason why insurance companies don't own so much of it.

Only buy Kenya Re for the future yaani buy a lot and forget once a progressive MD is named it will go over the roof. If you are looking for a short term investment go for KK and the likes but you'll not get the returns that you'll get in 10yrs from counters like Kenya Re, KQ and KPLC. Let's catch up in 10yrs.