Companies

TPS narrows its half year loss to Sh557m

serena

Nairobi Serena Hotel. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Serena hotel brand operator, TPS Eastern Africa #ticker:TPS narrowed its net loss by 13 percent to Sh557.2 million in the half year ended June, helped by favourable currency movements.

The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm had posted a net loss of Sh640.9 million the year before.

The company booked an exchange gain of Sh60.2 million in the review period, reversing a loss of Sh149.4 million in the prior period.

The currency movements are primarily based on its dollar-denominated borrowings.

Revenue declined marginally to Sh1.07 billion from Sh1.1 billion. The company says it continues to operate in a challenging environment, with tourism suffering the most disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As anticipated by the board and management of the company, the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on global tourism carried on into the first half of year 2021,” TPS said in a statement.

“Global tourism suffered further setbacks in the beginning of the year as international and regional source market countries tightened travel restrictions in response to the outbreaks of the more virulent variants of the virus. Mandatory testing, quarantine, and in some cases the complete closure of borders, have all slowed down the resumption of international travel.”

The company noted that while business is still below normal capacity, there has been improvement compared to last year.

TPS has reopened its properties after temporarily closing them between April and June last year when the initial shocks of the pandemic-related restrictions set in.

The company has received support from its major shareholder and banks who have been approached to either provide new funding or defer repayment of existing credit facilities running into billions of shillings.

TPS says it is difficult to predict the short to medium term performance of the business, noting that these are subject to the frequent changes in restrictions by different governments.