Centum Investments Registers 4.12 Billion Shillings in Profits

Centum Investments Company has registered a net profit of 4.12 billion shillings for the financial year ended March 2019, a 48 percent growth.

The jump in profits has been attributed to the revaluations of the land under the procession of the company as well as gains in capital.

The spike in profits rejuvenates hope among the investors who had been left worried after the firm started going through some financial tribulations late last year.

The company says investment and other income grew by 72.5 percent, hitting 9.8 billion shillings from 5.7 billion shillings recorded the previous year.

Centum had initially issued a profit warning following uncertainties in the sector and had anticipated a dip of at least 25 percent in profits.

During the financial year, Centum made 1.2 billion shillings from the sale of 73 percent stake in asset manager GenAfrica to Kuramo Capital.

“During the year, we closed a number of development rights sales in our land banks at valuation multiples that are several times our book carrying value,” said Centum.

Profit from trading business segment grew by 4.6 percent to 1.2 billion shillings from revenue growth of 6.8 percent y/y to 10.9 billion shillings.

Longhorn Publishers Ltd was the key growth driver in this segment with profitability growth of 141 percent y/y. Operating loss from financial services narrowed by 14.7 percent y/y to 461.2 million shillings due to income growth of 23.1 percent y/y (3.5 billion shillings).

There was an uptick in Net Asset Value per share (NAV) to 79.00 shillings from 73.10 shillings, implying a market discount to book value of 0.4x.