Centum’s CEO James Mworia says the performance is a consequence of lower realized gains on investments as well as poor performance on its financial services/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 13 – Centum Investment has recorded a 16 percent drop in profit after tax, to Sh8.3 billion for the 2017 financial year, which is down from Sh9.9 billion in the same period last year.
Centum’s CEO James Mworia says the performance is a consequence of lower realized gains on investments as well as poor performance on its financial services.
Poor performance on Centum’s financial services subsidiaries such as Sidian Bank were tied to the introduction of the interest rate capping which resulted in, “a challenging operating environment for the industry,” according to Mworia.
“Last year we sold more, we had about Sh5 billion in realized gains, this year we are Sh1 billion, the Sh4 billion differences contribute to the decline,” Mworia said during the Tuesday investor briefing.
Investment income went down by 39 percent owing to depreciation of the stock market performance.
Finance cost, however, went up owing to investments in the Two Rivers Mall and buying out of Longhorn publishers.
Its total assets amounted to Sh61.5 billion during the period under review, up from Sh51.5 the previous year, while borrowings hit Sh14.6 billion from Sh10.4 billion the previous year.
The board declared an enhanced dividend of Sh1.20 per share.
Going forward, the company says it has many exit opportunities across its portfolio.
