Big six Kenyan firms go investor hunting in London summit

By M&M Reporer

Six NSE-listed firms are currently attending the EFG Hermes 9^th annual London Conference, the biggest Middle East North Africa and frontier emerging markets (“FEM”) investor event held in the UK. The event, which started today, will run until Tuesday September 11 and has attracted 327 institutional investors and 151 listed companies from diverse sectors and markets across the world.

The six NSE-listed firms in attendance include: Equity Bank, KCB Group, Centum, Safaricom, Kenol Kobil and WPP Scan Group. Top executives from the six firms are expected to meet global investors to share insights and discuss investment opportunities. This event is significant for the Kenyan firms in view of the historically high foreign investor flows on the NSE.

A further 11 companies from Nigeria, Uganda, Mauritius and Botswana will also be represented by their senior executives, underlining African companies’ growing profile among global investors. Over the past decade, investor interest in fast-growing frontier and emerging markets (FEM), including those in Africa, has increased.

“EFG Hermes takes pride in its role to bridge the gap between global capital and opportunities in high-growth markets,” said EFG Hermes Holding Group CEO Karim Awad. “The conference offers a rare forum for active fund managers to gain on-the-ground insights and intelligence from C-suite executives about how increased transparency, tougher regulations and new technologies are reshaping FEM investments in 2018.”

“Frontier emerging markets are witnessing economic modernization and the opening-up of their markets, with major policy reforms at the forefront of their respective governments’ initiatives to transition from commodity-dependent to more diversified economies,” said Mohamed Ebeid, Co-CEO of the Investment Bank at EFG Hermes.

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“While FEM markets have no shortfall in challenges ahead for the future, they also present a wealth of prospects for the investment community; and the EFG Hermes London Conference is an exclusive opportunity for them to deepen their connections with and knowledge of these markets through first-hand encounters with C-suite executives representing multiple industries and sectors across FEM,” added Ebeid.

This year’s conference is set to be the largest in the event’s history, with participating companies, which have grown from 130 last year, spanning the world over and covering sectors such as consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, materials, real estate and hospitality, telecommunication services and utilities