Kenya's Uchumi plans rights share issue by December: report

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's Uchumi Supermarkets will launch a 1.5 billion shilling rights issue by December to fund expansion locally and within east Africa, Kenya's Business Daily newspaper reported on Thursday. "According to our timetable, the rights issue is slated for November, latest December," the newspaper cited Uchumi Chief Executive Jonathan Ciano as saying. Uchumi, ranked Kenya's second biggest supermarket chain by sales, announced this week a 20 percent jump in pretax profit to 486 million shillings in the year through to June. It already operates in neighbouring Tanzania and Uganda and plans to enter Rwanda and South Sudan.