Muthoka retires as KCB board chairman

By James Anyanzwa

The board chairman of Kenya Commercial Bank Group Peter Muthoka has stepped down after retiring as a director of the bank.

This is in accordance with the bank’s board charter, which requires a director to serve for a maximum of eight years on the parent company’s board and six years on the board of the subsidiary companies. Muthoka, together with two other directors —Susan Omanga and Sunil Shah — retired yesterday after having served the board for the maximum eight-year period, from June 2004.

“Thank you so much for giving me a chance to serve you for a period of eight years as a director and four years as a chairman,” Muthoka told shareholders during the bank’s 41st Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Nairobi yesterday.

But even as Muthoka relinquished his position he remained optimistic about the Group’s growth and profitability, saying the transformation initiatives put in place in 2010 financial year have started bearing fruits.

The Group posted a 35 per cent growth in pre-tax profit for the first three months of this year boosted by revenues from diversified product offering and major turnaround of its regional subsidiaries.

KCB, the country’s largest bank both by asset base and branch network, returned a profit before tax of Sh3.4 billion, compared to Sh2.4 billion reported over the same period last year. Muthoka, however, raised concerns over the difficult operating environment and macroeconomic challenges but was confident of board’s expectations going fotward.

“As a board we are confident that the bank will continue to achieve excellent results in line with our expectations for this year,” he said.

He was confident that the continued implementation of the bank’s transformation initiatives would further spur the group’s strong performance in the coming years.