[2008-07-02]  Kenya's Safaricom names new chief financial officer
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom said chief financial officer Les Baillie will move from that role in August to become head of investor relations ahead of retirement in 2009.
Safaricom, east Africa's biggest telecommunication company with over 11 million subscribers, appointed Chris Tiffin as Baillie's successor.
Tiffin held a similar position with mobile phone firm Celtel Nigeria.
"Baillie has ... led the company through three financing exercises and the recent highly successful IPO," Safaricom said in a statement late on Tuesday. "His move to investor relations will ensure continuity of service to the investor and financial community."
Safaricom listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange last month following a heavily oversubscribed initial public offering in which the government sold a 25 percent stake, raising 51.75 billion shillings.
Tiffin has also worked with South Africa's Vodacom, which is jointly owned by South African fixed line operator Telkom and Britain's Vodafone.
Celtel Nigeria is an arm of Kuwaiti-based Zain Group which also holds Celtel Kenya, Safaricom's biggest competitor.
Safaricom's shares closed at 7.35 shillings on Monday, versus 7.4 shillings at Friday's close and a high of 8.15 shillings hit on June 16.
The firm made a pretax profit of 19.9 billion shillings in the year ended March 31, up 16 percent from a year earlier.


Source: REUTERS