Meet self-made investor with shares in over 60 listed firms

Alois Chami, a seasoned and vocal investor on NSE asks questions during Equity Group Holdings 13th Annual General Meeting held on May 23, 2017 at Safari Park Hotel. Photo: Courtesy

Even in a well-packed Annual General Meeting (AGM), Alois Chami, a vocal, seasoned and self-taught investor will always catch the eye of the chief executive officer (CEO).

His name may not be anywhere in top ten shareholders of any firm but he has a humble stake that gives him all the rights to stand up and ask any CEO of a listed firm what he considers important questions to protect his money.

Meeting him at any AGM, he looks humble. He walks in like any investor, registers at the entrance and picks the goodies that companies pack in small bags for the investors. However, do not deny him the company’s report for the year. He will demand for it.

Last week, when Financial Standard caught up with Mr Chami, now 71 years, at Equity Group’s 13th AGM at Safari Park Hotel, he was no different.

“Thank you Mr CEO for delivering these results. However, I would like to raise a number of issues. First, on page 73 of the booklet you have given us, the Consolidated Statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income shows that---,” he started off.

All the questions, at least four, were directed to the Group CEO James Mwangi who had explained to shareholders that the bank had delivered a profit of Sh16.5 billion in a “challenging environment.”

He did not have to introduce himself. But after he had finished his questions and handed back the microphone, the bank’s founder as well as long-serving Chairman Peter Munga acknowledged him by his two names.

Then after the AGM, as almost every shareholder was rushing to get lunch, Mr Chami went to the high table for a word with the CEO, chairman and company secretary. All these because he owns 1,000 shares at Equity Group.

He did not begin investing Monday. He fell in love with the stock market in 1973 and he has watched his stake grow.

Any new company that comes on the stock market, he goes for a stake.

“I bought my first shares in 1973 when companies started putting adverts in the newspapers. It was analogue trading. We were trading without Central Depository System,” Chami told Financial Standard.

That time, the stock market activities used to happen in IPS Building, an iconic structure that was the first high-rise commercial building in Nairobi, when it was built in 1967.

He says his first counters were East African Breweries, Nation Media Group and British American Tobacco.

This was just to try his luck back in 1970s when the market used to be a club of the affluent. “I am not rich but I own a residential house in Umoja and 30 acres land in Busia which I bought through the stock market,” says Chami.

Financial adviser

Unlike many investors who are cautious when deciding where to put their money, Chami started off without any prior knowledge. He did not even visit a financial advisor. For him the guiding principle is simple: buy when prices are low and sell when they are high.

In 1970s up to 1994, Chami was working at Kenya Railways, which at that time was among the leading employers in the country. Based in Nairobi, he was a regular visitor at IPS building.

“I could sneak out at lunch hour, go to buy and sell shares then return to work. It was interesting that I work elsewhere to be paid then put my money on stock market for the companies to work for me and pay me too,” says Chami.

Most of the time, his salary could be split between family and stock market. That time, there was no trading board to monitor share movement.

Traders could meet and once they buy shares, brokers would give them a paper to serve as share certificate. This would be handy when one wants to sell the share.

When initial public offers were announced, he dashed to Kenya Commercial Bank, KICC Branch, for a Sh30,000 loan and used it to buy more shares. That was in late 1970s. Archived East African Standard newspapers in Standard Group library show that in March 1971, KCB announced massive loans spread over four years to encourage home ownership.

But Chami chose to borrow for stock market. He says bank stocks were the best performers, going up by between Sh5 and Sh10 within just three weeks. He moved to put money in Standard Chartered Bank, KCB and Barclays.

The collapse of institutions such as Kenya Financial Bank and OTC would deal him some pains when they went under but he soldiered on. In each, he had 1,000 shares too. “Since when companies collapse we could not ask for compensation given that we are owners, I have learnt to put top management on toes,” he says.

Chami says that he has spread his shares in all companies on the NSE. For a start, he targeted most of the cheap-priced shares and bought at least 1,000 shares. In Safaricom, he has invested 3,000 shares, making it the highest among his portfolio. “I have not left any company out. Even when Rea Vipingo went private, I decided to remain with them. CMC Motors forced to pay me. I never want to lose shareholding,” he told Financial Standard.

At The Standard Group, Chami has 1,500 shares and he says he plans to attend this year's AGM. For him, all AGMs within Nairobi are a priority even though sometimes he goes as far as Mombasa to ask what he considers important for his stake.

Even when he retired in 1994, he used part of his retirement package to invest on NSE. With stakes spread in many firms, he manages to mitigate losses in poor-performing counters.

Even when stockbroking firms like Nyaga Stockbrokers were collapsing, he did not have all his eggs in one basket. Even now, he has more than three brokers.

For him to own a rental house and land, he says it took patience. He bought the Umoja house at Sh200,000 in 1980s from the defunct Nairobi City Council who were constructing and selling out.

That took him two years with most of the repayment money coming from the stock market. He would later on turn to buying land in his rural home in small sizes till it hit 30 acres.

Studied at Kenya Polytechnic, British Tutorial College, then at Royal College (now University of Nairobi), mostly on apprenticeship to get knowledge on book keeping, Chami says he is not about to stop investing.

My latest additions are Deacons and Stanlib- Fahari. If I get some really good sums of money, my next investment will still be in shares,” he says.

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