East African Portland says profit may plunge, Kenya
Kenya’s second biggest cement producer, East African Portland , warned on Monday that its profits for the year ending June 2009 could be less than 25 per cent of what it achieved the previous year.
"East African Portland Cement wishes to announce... that the projected earnings level for the year ended June 30, 2009, may be lower than 25 percent of that achieved in the year ended June 30, 2008," it said in a statement.
Portland said that although production was up 3 percent and revenues had risen 10 percent on the previous year’s, the impact of high fuel and electricity costs had eroded those gains.
"The combined impact of these increases cost the company an additional 426 million shillings ($5.43 million) by March 31, 2009," it said.
The company, which holds a yen-denominated loan, reported a 489 million shillings pretax loss for the six months to end December due to the strength of the Japanese currency.
Published under Cement News
