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Fountain Enterprises Programme (FEP) Holdings new CEO Maurice Korir.Last month he was appointed the new CEO of FEP Holdings, a firm that was recently turned away by Central Bank of Kenya in its quest to invest in the banking industry. Korir says he wants to defy all the wobbly beginning and turn around the fortunes of this loss-making investment firm.PHOTO: COURTESY
How accountant who took a pay cut plans to fix the mess at FEP
He was at first hesitant to take up the job offer. He had some reservations about Fountain Enterprise Programme (FEP) Holdings. But Maurice Korir now wants to steer the firm to safer waters. Last month he was appointed the new CEO of FEP Holdings, a firm that was recently turned away by Central Bank of Kenya in its quest to invest in the banking industry. Korir says he wants to defy all the wobbly beginning and turn around the fortunes of this loss-making investment firm. “Before I came here, I had never heard of FEP. I also questioned the model of raising money when people did not have share certificates,” he told Business Beat. He came on board on October 2014 as Chief Operations Officer; a time when 175 employees were on their way out. He was recommended by Business Partner Consultants Africa that had been hired to carry out a restructuring. Korir, who has previously worked at Mobil Oil, Airtel (when it was Kencell), Ogilvy PR and Uchumi Supermarkets, says he derives satisfaction from bringing order to chaotic organisations. On the eighth floor of Galana Plaza in Kilimani, Korir, who featured on top 40 under 40 list in 2012, spends the whole Wednesday in office thinking of new strategies. “I prefer to work for companies that are not yet where they would want to be. I like to fix things,” says Korir, who for about one year worked from a house in Lavington when FEP had no proper office. He walked out of marketing and communications firm Ogilvy, took a pay cut and settled for a loss making organisation. The firm has an asset base of about Sh4.4 billion. “I actually took a 50 per cent pay cut to join. It is either the dumbest or best thing I would have done. But I believe it is the best,” he says. FEP holdings, a brainchild of Dr John Kithaka, alongside 37 other investors raised Sh14 million and got incorporated in 2009. The group tried many things at ago —hotels, schools, credit services, media, technology —but shaky management plunged the businesses into losses. Despite raising Sh4.8 billion by 2014, including Sh2.4 billion through private placement to try and unlock value for investors, hitting break-even point seemed too far. “The projects were not well managed. In 2014, the board realised that despite all these resources, the business was in losses,” says the University of Nairobi graduate. For such a diversified investment firm, BPA Africa Consultants advised for identification of linkages in their different business and cut on business structures. According to Korir, internal controls were weak, jobs were uncoordinated, and investors were used to interacting with management all the time at a time book keeping was also weak. GO TO PAGE 1 2 3 Next »
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