LMAO... So NSE has written back 115mn for recovery of doubtful debts? We should question what this is and what it was for... I have not looked at this in detail so I will speculate

1) There were brokers who were bailed out by NSE due to the influence of Jimnah Mbaru. Let's assume that these were 'loans' from NSE to the fallen brokers. The other NSE shareholders tried to kick them out, auction their licenses and take back the shares they owned in NSE

2)These 'fallen' brokers went to court and obtained a ruling that despite their 'fallen' status they still owned shares in NSE. This makes sense e.g. a bankrupt firm [e.g. Discount] that owns shares in another firm [e.g. NSE] does not lose the shares by going bankrupt.

3) Now that NSE is going public, these shares owned by the 'fallen' firms can be sold, the money will be used to pay off the creditors, one of which is NSE.

4) So the NSE recovers [or has told the auditors it will] the money and this is written back as profits for 2013. Check if the auditors have qualified the Financial Statements as regards this matter.

5) 2014 will be a good year for the NSE coz of the many Rights [DTB, Jubilee, NIC], the NSE IPO, etc but... it will not be enough to cover 115mn... to will it?

I am not jumping into the IPO until I have more info... A lot more info. In the meantime I hope the price of Centum or HFCK falls! I want back in.

You might be waiting an eternity!

According to myStocks, HFCK was trading at 48.75 in Oct 2006. Is this pre-bonus? Has the price been adjusted for bonuses? I think there was a Rights Issue since 2006. When did Equity buy in?

@mwekezaji, VVS. thanks for highlighting that fact. so basically the 115m is an exceptional item that won't be there next year.
companies always shore up results before listing.
as @ sparkly said. dividing the 2012 and 2013 earnings may be a better way to judge. im not as enthusiastic as before. ill make a gut call when the hour is nigh.

@vvs, as requested. Herebelow find the Centum 10 year chart though mystocks only has data from mid 2006 to date. Each candlestick shows the high and low for each month with the green candlesticks showing an appreciation of prices and the red ones showing a decline.