01 March 2014, Nairobi – Satte-controlled Kenya Power posted a marginal 2.7 per cent drop in net profit to Sh3.01 billion for the six-month period ending December 31 compared with a similar period in 2012, it reported yesterday.
The slim drop was attributed to payments in deferred and due taxation that almost trippled to Sh1.17 billion from Sh479 million previously. The monopolistic power distributor recorded a 17.2 per cent jump in profit before taxation to Sh4.19 billion from previous Sh3.57 in half year performance.
The increased earnings were lifted by a Sh3.66 billion jump in revenue from sale of electricity to Sh26.92 billion, helped by last December increase in electricity tariffs that contributed Sh952 million and Sh2.71 billion in increased unit sales.
Total operating income went up by Sh2.86 billion to Sh48.59 billion while operating costs were flat at Sh41.8 billion from Sh41.3 billion in December 2012. Commercial services, fuel, energy transmission and administration expenses fell by 28.4, 2.5, 11.6 and 0.8 per cent, respectively.
Power purchase excluding fuel and distribution costs, on the other hand, increased by 12.5 and 0.8 per cent, respectively. “We experienced strong growth in consumption across all our customer categories …(and)we were able to improve on our efficiencies and manage our expenses,” CEO Ben Chumo said in a press statement.
The inefficiency levels at the publicly traded power distributor however remain high at 86.07 per cent despite the slight improvement from the previous 90.33 per cent as measured by cost to income ratio. At the Nairobi Securities Exchange, the shares had gained 15 cents day on day yesterday afternoon at 1.53 pm trading at Sh15.15 a piece.
Meanwhile, power producer KenGen posted 38.6 per cent drop in net profit to Sh1.01 billion for the six months to last December down from Sh1.6 billion in December 2012. The drop was attributed to a 10.7 per cent growth in operating costs to Sh5.7 billion against flat revenue of Sh8.4 billion from sale of generated electricity to Kenya Power.
– The Star