Bamburi Cement pretax profit falls 15% y/y

Bamburi Cement, the biggest cement manufacturer in Kenya, has announced a 15% fall in pretax profit to 7.17 billion shillings (US$83.3 million) for FY2012. The Lafarge-controlled company attributes the loss to lower gains on its foreign currency holdings – in the previous year, the Kenyan shilling had weakened against the dollar, whereas last year it held stable.

Turnover was up 4% to 37.5 billion shillings, while operating profit dropped 14% due to higher costs.

"The group anticipates underlying cement demand to continue growing in the region despite a slow start in Kenya influenced by the election period, supported by improved political stability in the inland Africa export markets," Bamburi said in a statement.

The announcement comes a few days after East Africa Portland Cement announced a return to profitability.

Edited from various sources by Katherine Guenioui.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/africa-middle-east/01032013/bamburi_cement_profit_down_897/