This archive report was first published on 16 June 2020.
Kenya Power, the state-owned electricity distributor, has issued a profit warning for its financial year ending June 30, 2020, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the main reason for the expected decline in earnings.
According to the company's statement, the pandemic has adversely affected business operations, leading to slow growth in electricity sales and an increase in financing costs, resulting in reduced earnings.
Kenya Power's cautionary statement follows a similar one issued in September 2019, when the company warned its investors that its profits for the year ended June 2019 would drop due to an increase in the cost of purchasing power.
As a result, the company reported a 91.98 percent decline in its net profits for the period, to Sh262 million down from Sh3.27 billion made in 2018, despite a 1.34 percent rise in revenue to Sh133.1 billion.
The company attributed the revenue growth to new purchases from the completed Lake Turkana Wind Power project and the 50-megawatt Garissa solar farm.
