Kenya Power’s profit hits 10-year low, no dividends

Nairobi. Kenya Power has returned the worst performance in a decade as profits fell 63.7 per cent to Sh1.92 billion, denying investors any dividend amid another poor run on the Nairobi bourse. The firm blamed the performance for the financial year ended June 2018 on higher power purchase and finance costs as well as the increased level of debt provisioning due to delayed payments. This was the case despite customer numbers rising by 578,808 to 6.76 million. Acting CEO Jared Othieno said that the impact of drought, lengthy election period and negative brand perception after 19 managers were charged over graft took a toll on the firm. “This negative perception impacted on our ability to do business.... We also had to do more provisioning to reflect requirements of the new accounting standard that dictated that any 30-day debt be provisioned,” he said. (NMG)