Kenya Power & Lightening company has reported a slight drop in full year net profit to Sh 12.1 Billion compared to Sh 12.3 Billion posted in the previous year.
During the period total revenue was up by 1.5% to Sh 108.4 Billion with electricity sales growing by 12% from Sh 77.8 Billion to Sh 87.1 Billion. In 2016, a record 7.4 billion units were sold compared to 7.13 billion units sold last year.
The NSE Kenya listed company incurred about Sh 70.3 billion in power purchases (including fuel cost and foreign exchange), a marginal drop from Sh 7.13 Billion incurred in the previous year.
Related; KenGen’s Full Year 2016 Net Profit drops by 41%
Fuel costs declined massively by 51% to Sh 12.7 billion from Sh 25.8 billion recorded in the previous year and this was largely attributed to increased usage of hydro and geothermal sources of energy. Units generated from thermal plants decreased by 27.6% from 1792 GWh in the previous year to 1297 GWh .
Expenses related to transmission & distribution increased by 18% to Sh28.7 billion in 2016.
“The increase is due to the growth of the company’s electricity network which led to increased operational expenses.” note KPLC in the financial statement.
During the period, finance costs increased by a massive Sh 846 million from Sh 4.97 billion to Sh 5.8 Billion on the back of higher financing costs due to increased borrowings to supplement internally generated funds to finance network expansion and other projects.
Dividend
The company has recommended that in addition to the Sh 0.20 paid during the half year period, a full and a final dividend of Sh 0.30 to be paid per ordinary share. This brings total dividend payment during the year to Sh 0.50, which is unchanged from the previous year.
