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Absa Group to raise stake in Kenyan unit to 72%; Equity Bank reports half year results

  • Equity Group Holdings to release its half year earnings report this morning before markets open.
  • Absa Group will raise its stake in Absa Bank Kenya to about 72 per cent after buying 189.4 million shares in a tender offer at Sh34.50 each.
  • Minority shareholders tendered 189,981,668 shares, of which 189,380,644 were accepted, representing about 21 percent of the maximum number of shares targeted in the offer.
  • Peach Cars secure Sh520 million in debt financing
    Peach Cars has secured Sh517.6 million in debt financing from two Japanese financial institutions to expand its online vehicle marketplace operations in Kenya.
    The funding, provided by Japan Finance Corporation (JFC) and Shoko Chukin Bank, comes a year after Peach Cars raised Sh1.42 billion in a Series A round in June 2025.
    The financing will allow Peach Cars to scale its vehicle inspection capacity, expand access to vehicle financing and grow its online marketplace.
  • Deepseek plans to hike model prices
    DeepSeek plans to implement a significant price increase across its artificial intelligence (AI) services.
    In a notice posted on Thursday, DeepSeek did not specify the exact increases, other than to call them substantial and urged users to plan accordingly.
    DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 is currently the second strongest open-weight AI model on the market, behind only the massive 2.8-trillion-parameter model Kimi K3 from Moonshot AI.
    DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 on average costs Sh3.90 ($3) per task, making it roughly 105 times cheaper than Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5, which costs Sh410 ($3.15) per task
  • NCBA Group half year profits rise 12% to Sh12.4bn
    NCBA Group reported a 12.2 per cent rise in half-year net profit to Sh12.4 billion for the six months ended June 2026 and increased its interim dividend by 50 per cent to Sh3.75 per share, up from Sh2.50 a year earlier.
    The lender increased loan loss provisions by 60 per cent to Sh5.2 billion compared to Sh3.2 billion reported during the same period last year.
    NCBA Group Managing Director, John Gachora, said the increase was necessary to position the bank to absorb any potential risks.
  • DEVELOPINGSTORY
    EABL profits jump 49% to Sh18.2bn
    East African Breweries Limited (EABL) has reported a 49 per cent jump in net profit to Sh18.2 billion, up from Sh12.2 billion it reported a year earlier.
    The board has declared a final dividend of Sh8.70 per share, payable on October 31, 2026, to shareholders on the register at the close of business on October 19, 2026.
    The Group's Managing Director, Jane Karuku, told investors the performance was driven by country and category growth in volume and revenue with great delivery on productivity and cash.
  • Stanbic Holdings' half-year earnings rise 1% to Sh6.6B
    Stanbic Holdings reported a 1% increase in half-year net profit to Sh6.6 billion for the six months ended June 2026, supported by a 4% rise in net interest income to Sh12.3 billion, while non-interest income remained flat at Sh7.6 billion compared with the same period last year.
    The lender cut its credit impairment charges by half to Sh725m, compared to Sh1.4 billion it set aside last year.
    Stanbic Holdings has declared an interim dividend of Sh1.64 per share, payable on October 5, 2026, to shareholders on the register at the close of business on September 1, 2026.
  • NSE plans to roll out AI-focused ETF - Reuters
    Nairobi Securities Exchange is creating East Africa's first AI stocks-focused exchange-traded ​fund, which it plans to offer to investors before year-end, NSE CEO, Frank Mwiti, told Reuters.
    "We want essentially to be able to bring a product to our market where the underlying basket is a reflection of companies that have a direct exposure to ​AI," Frank Mwiti told Reuters.
    "There is... ​a vibe in the market that there might be a bubble around AI, so maybe there is also an aspect of waiting ​and seeing," he said.
  • Safaricom sheds 4% after going ex dividend
    Safaricom shares fell by Sh1.30 or 4 per cent in early trading today after closing its books for the final dividend yesterday.
    The company will pay the final dividend of Sh1.15 per share on 4th September 2026.