Centum Investments has registered a 1.37 billion shillings net loss in the financial year ended March 2021. This is their first full-year loss in over 42 years. The loss is a drop from a 4.63 billion shillings net profit posted the previous financial year.
Despite the massive loss, shareholders will still smile all the way to the bank after the board recommended a dividend of 0.33 shillings per share amounting to 218 million shillings, a rare gesture from a listed firm in the absence of a profit.
“The payment of the dividend is on the back of operating profit of 245 million shillings the company recorded in the year and is intended to cushion our shareholders from the effects of the difficult economic conditions while allowing the company to retain liquidity, “said James Mworia, CEO at Centum.
Centum Investments was known as Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC) before it rebranded in 2008. It made 6.85 million shillings net profit in 1979 and closed 2007 with 1.12 billion shillings net profit before being Centum.
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“Our private equity business segment holds investments in various sectors, some of which were significantly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic especially in the first half of the financial year,” said the firm in a statement by Mwangi Mbogo last year.
In September 2020, Centum announced that it was investing 7.0 billion shillings to develop a new affordable housing project in Kasarani, Nairobi.
The project will consist of 268 units, comprising studio apartments, 1 bedroom, 1 bedroom loft, and 2 bedroom apartments of 20 sqm, 40 sqm, 40 sqm, and 60 sqm, respectively. The selling prices of the units will begin at 1.9 million shillings.
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The company says its current financial year promising given the recovery in the economy as Covid-19 vaccines continue to be dispatched around the world.