Kakuzi Limited Posts KES 764.4mn in Profit Before Tax

Kakuzi Limited has released it full year financial results for the year ended on 31st December 2015 making a profit before tax of 764.4 million shillings. According to the report, this profit was a tremendous improvement from the previous 2014 period where profit before income tax stood at 232.8 million shillings.

The net gain from biological assets within the profits was 114.2 million shillings in 2015 as compared to the 79.3 million shillings in 2014. At the same time, the earnings per stock unit for Kakuzi Limited increased from 8.17 shillings to 26.92 shillings.

According to the report, Kakuzi Limited has a current share capital of 98 million shillings being the same as it was in the year 2014. Retained earnings on the other hand increased from 2.81 billion in 2014 to 3.24 billion in 2015. The net current assets stands at 4.19 billion shillings from 3.68 billion in 2014.

According to the management, the improved profit 2015 as compared to 2014 is considered satisfactory and was driven to some extent by the weather conditions as well as favorable market demands for the main export products from Kakuzi Limited.

Avocado was dominant in returns but tea and forestry made useful contribution to profits. Though many sectors were economically hurt by the weakening Kenya Shilling, for Kakuzi Limited, the weakening Shilling worked in their favor as well as the fact that they could take advantage of high interest rates with given their strong cash position.

For the dividends for 2015 financial year, the recommendations of the directors is that of five shillings per stock unit this being an increase from 3.75 shillings in the financial year 2014.

In overall 2015 was a good year for avocado production although smallholder early fruit was quality affected by the dry weather. In total Kakuzi Limited exported 1.9 million cartons of avocado which is some 360 container loads. This was an all -time record for Kakuzi with currently having 449 hectares planted to avocado.

Total production of tea was 1,466 tonnes in 2015 as compared with 1,730 tonnes in 2014 as a result of prolonged dry spell in Nandi. This however reduced supply and therefore increased the demand and in the process pushing the prices up.

The company currently has 856 hectares planted under macadamia crop and plans are under way for the increase to up to 1,026 hectares.

Article by Juma Fred.