Uganda Clays has appointed Nazarious Rukanyangira as the sales and marketing manager to spearhead an aggressive expansion strategy in East Africa.
Martin Aliker, the Uganda Clays chairman, noted at the company’s Annual General Meeting at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel that the Kamonkoli branch has been performing below potential due to a relaxed trading strategy in Kenya.
But this is set to change. The company is changing from expensive furnace oil to cheaper coffee husks to heat its machines in a bid to improve profits.
Shareholders were not too pleased about the absence of a final dividend for a third straight year, despite a sh3.95b profit for the year 2012, up from sh904m the year before.
“We are also going to compete by shades and colours and not just by our wide range of products. Customers now want customised products,” Kasekende said.
“We are carrying out a study on alternatives to furnace oil. Coffee husks, rice husks, and ground nut husks are being considered as alternatives,” he added.
The company injected sh1.5b worth of spares in their Kajjansi factory. Current expensive loans are expected to fully be paid off by March 2014 to free up space for new cheaper financing.
The company was trading for sh30 per share by close of business on Tuesday. There were outstanding offers for 2.28m shares with outstanding bids for only 100,000 shares.
British American Tobacco Uganda released its half year financial results indicating a fall in after tax profits to sh4.9b from sh8.1b. A profit warning has been issued about lower than projected full year profit.
Despite that city business mogul Sudhir Ruparelia sold all his BATU shares for nearly twice their market value to British THS Kingsway fund. Sudhir made sh11.8b from the sale of 2,985,726 shares for sh4,000 per share on Friday, last week.
This is the second biggest deal closed on the Uganda Securities Exchange since the sale of dfcu bank shares to dutch investors for sh111.9b in May.
The price has since declined marginally to sh3,975. Some 12,750 shares were sold on Tuesday for a total turnover of sh50.6m.
A Supreme Court case, costs related to the decommissioning of the Kampala processing plant, and an increase in illicit cigarette trade affected improved revenues of sh168.9b.
Jonathan D’Souza, the BATU boss, noted at a media briefing to discuss the company’s half-year results that the illicit cigarette trade in Uganda has hit 20% is higher than Kenya’s 10% average.
Some 4,100 shares were sold on the Umeme counter for sh1.47m at the sh360 per share. Stanbic Bank moved 10,000 for sh250,000 at sh25 per share and National Insurance Corporation (NIC) moved 27,971 shares at sh35 per share.
Most counters did not record activity as the all share index dropped to sh1456 from 1460.
The Local share index moved down slightly to sh236.08 from sh236.68.
By Samuel Sanya,The New Vision
