Kenya Power’s full-year pretax profit slumps by 93pc

Kenya Power said on Wednesday its pretax profit for the year to the end of June 2019 dropped 93% to 334 million shillings, hurt by higher costs of buying electricity.

The company, the main electricity distributor in the East African nation, delayed publication of its results last November due to a vacancy at the auditor general’s office, which is responsible for auditing state-controlled firms.

The results issued on Wednesday were not audited.

The cost of buying electricity jumped by 18 billion shillings during the period, Kenya Power said, blunting the impact of an increase in sales to customers.

Finance costs also went up due to higher short-term borrowings, the company said.