This archive report was first published on 24 September 2019.
Co-operative Bank has been serving as the shares registrar for BAT Kenya since 2016, but the cigarette manufacturing firm has now appointed Image Registrars Limited to take over the services, effective October 1.
According to a public notice issued by BAT Kenya on September 23, all shareholder queries, applications for registration of transfer of shares, dividend claims, and immobilisation of shares should be lodged with the new registrars from the effective date.
Image Registrars Limited is a well-established shares registrar in Kenya, responsible for keeping the share registers of listed firms such as Safaricom, KenGen, Britam, Standard Chartered, and Standard Group.
The firm has also been contracted for the initial public offerings of Eveready EA and Safaricom, when the firms first issued shares to the public in 2006 and 2008 respectively.
As part of the transition, BAT Kenya has advised its shareholders to urgently lodge any unclaimed dividends remaining with Co-op Bank, as any unclaimed dividend outstanding for more than three years will be surrendered to the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority.
Shares Registry ¶
A shares registry, or a shareholders register, is a list of active owners of a company's shares, updated on an ongoing basis. It requires that every current shareholder is recorded and is fundamental to the examination of the ownership of a company.
The shares registry is usually kept by a shares registrar, which is an institution responsible for keeping the records after an issuer offers securities to the public. When a listed firm needs to make an interest payment on a bond or a dividend payment to shareholders, the company refers to the list of registered owners maintained by the shares registrar.
Investopedia notes that one role of the registrar is to make sure the amount of shares outstanding does not exceed the number of shares authorized in a firm's corporate charter. A corporation cannot issue more shares of stock than the maximum number of shares that the corporate charter discloses.
Shares Registrars in Kenya ¶
Shares registrars in Kenya include Image Registrars, Custody & Registrar Services, City Registrars, Haki Registrars, and Funguo Registrars, among many. Co-op Bank, CFC Bank, CMC Holdings, and Jubilee also have share registry services.
