Bamburi replaces brewer as top NSSF investment stock

Bamburi Cement has replaced East African Breweries Ltd (EABL) as the largest stock in the statutory pension fund’s portfolio, according to official filings published Friday.

The statements show as at June 2013 Bamburi accounted for nearly a quarter of the National Social Security Fund’s (NSSF) value of listed stocks.

NSSF had 56.9 million Bamburi shares worth Sh12.23 billion which is 24 per cent of the Sh51.14 billion total. EABL shares took second place accounting for 21.4 per cent valued at Sh10.95 billion with some 32.87 million shares.

The statements did not publish the number of listed stocks that the NSSF held as of June 2012 but only their respective values.

Published prices of shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) around June 30, 2012 indicate that the NSSF could have sold some of EABL share and bought more of Bamburi.

NSSF also had a healthy stock of KCB shares worth Sh8.46 billion, BAT (Sh2.9 billion), National Bank of Kenya (Sh2.83 billion), Nation Media Group (Sh2.59 billion) and Barclays Bank (Sh2.5 billion).

The NSSF’s portfolio of NSE-listed stocks increased to Sh51.14 billion from Sh36.23 billion over the same period representing a 41 per cent rise.

Analysts say NSSF could have become more bullish on Bamburi due to higher dividends.

“The dividend yield of Bamburi is better than EABL,” said Moses Waireri, head of research at Sterling Capital. 

As at June 30 Bamburi had a dividend yield of 4.88 per cent while EABL’s was at 2.63 per cent.

NSSF also being big on real-estate development gives it an envious vantage point that provides it with a good view on sectors such as construction, a large cement consumer.

“They were banking on the boost real estate may have provided (judging) from the projects they have undertaken,” added Mr Waireri.

In real estate the fund had Sh8.6 billion in undeveloped land and Sh20 billion in buildings as at June 2013.

Overall it had Sh135 billion worth of investments, a 21 per cent increase from Sh111 billion.

The fund expects to have additional funds to invest following the new NSSF Act, which has increased member contributions.

“The NSSF Act No 45 of 2013 received presidential accent in December 2013 and became law on January 10, 2014. The Act has introduced significant reforms, among them the change from providing benefits on a provident basis to pension basis and strengthens the governance framework,” said managing trustee Richard Langat and chairman Dan Mohammed in a separate statement.

Despite the confident outlook, a section of the board is involved in a wrangle with Labour secretary Kazungu Kambi after he removed Francis Atwoli, workers’ representative, and Jacqueline Mugo, who represents employers, from the board.

Mr Atwoli represents the Central Organisation Trade Unions while Ms Mugo represents the Federation of Kenya Employers. The matter is now in court.