Kenya Power’s net profit for the six months ended December 2017 dropped by 30.3 per cent to Sh2.93 billion, as the high cost of financing debt took a toll amid lethargic power consumption growth in a slowing economy.
Kenya Power #ticker:KPLC will be keeping an eye on financing costs and more customer connections to turn around a profit plunge in the first half of the year.
The electricity distributor’s net profit for the six months ended December 2017 dropped by 30.3 per cent to Sh2.93 billion, as the high cost of financing debt took a toll amid lethargic power consumption growth in a slowing economy.
Financing costs rose by 42.7 per cent or Sh976 million to hit Sh3.3 billion in the period pulling down profits even as the total revenue grew by 14.8 per cent to Sh67.1 billion.
“The decrease (in profit) was attributed to the general slowdown of the economy and an increase in financing costs…which rose during the period under review compared to the previous year as a result of utilisation of short term facilities,” said Kenya Power in a statement.
The firm will not be paying an interim dividend for the period.
The State-owned power distributor has said that its electricity sales grew by 2.3 per cent from 3,805 gigawatt hours (GWh) to 3,893 in the period, which in turn saw sales revenue rise by 2.5 per cent to Sh46.93 billion.
Meanwhile, total operating costs went up by 17.4 per cent to Sh59.3 billion, mainly due to higher fuel costs — which doubled to Sh12.3 billion — as drought pushed the country to use more thermal power.
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