Centum profit jumps to Sh4.12bn as land revalued

Centum Investment Company PLC #ticker:ICDC booked 48 percent jump in net profit to Sh4.12 billion for the financial year ended March 2019, partly boosted by capital gain and land revaluations.

Investment and other income grew 72.5 percent to Sh9.8 billion from Sh5.7 billion achieved in the previous year, with CEO James Mworia attributing this to strong performance in overall business as well as the one-off gains.

“We made some portfolio exits like in GenAfrica which closed this year.

Also, land sales from real estate side and revaluations on property business contributed to the rise,” said Mr Mworia.

The performance was a recovery from a dip in the previous financial year that saw the company issue a profit warning citing lower asset valuations and political uncertainty.

In the period under review, Centum booked Sh1.2 billion gain following the sale of 73.4 percent stake in asset manager GenAfrica to Kuramo Capital.

Its real estate portfolio saw a Sh3.3 billion gain in fair value thanks to underlying development activities and sales.

“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,” the firm said.

This compensated for a fall in investment income from Sh3.5 billion to Sh3.2 billion due to lower interest income and reduced dividends that resulted after the deal.

The group’s beverage business saw a three percent decline in revenue while the banking subsidiary, Sidian bank, was on a rise due to 44 percent jump in non-funded income. Centum had recapitalised the bank through a Sh1.2 billion rights issue.