Kenya Power forecasts Kh15bn profit

Posted on : Tuesday, 13th January 2015

NAIROBI – KENYA Power, the energy utility, is convinced it will record a Sh15 billion pre-tax profit in the 2014/2015 financial year, a senior official has said.

The company, which in the past 22 years had not given its shareholders the highest return, would seek to break the new ground by making the profit.

According to Kenya Power’s Managing Director, Ben Chumo, the forecast was based on a good performance by the power retailer in the last two fiscal years.

“Our profit has been rising because we are getting more customers and electricity supply has become more reliable. I will not be surprised if we make Sh15 billion at the end of this financial year,” Chumo said.

Kenya Power had earlier on generated Sh10 billion in 2014 following another slight improvement of Sh6 billion before tax in 2013 financial year, a development widely seen as a huge success by the corporate world in Kenya.

“The biggest growth area for our profits is unit sale to industrialists. Unit sales grew amore than 10 percent meaning the reliability of supply gave industrialists more time to manufacture,” Chumo said.

He said among key drivers to Kenya Power to Sh15 billion forecast emanated from the Sh17 billion loan in November signed with Standard Chartered Bank for network upgrade.