Centum Investment Company Limited has reported a profit of 110 percent before tax to $ 25.29 million for the year ended March 2011 and declared a 1 for 10 bonus share issue for the shareholders.
The company which is spreading its wings across Africa also announced intentions to cross list its shares on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange and Rwanda Stock Exchange as it successfully listed its shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange in February 2011.
Its assets increased by 54 percent to $ 172.41 million and a return of 37 percent on opening shareholder fund against the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) Index which declined by 5 percent in the comparable period.
“Assets grew substantially in the same period from $ 112.64 million to $ 172.41 million,” the company’s CEO, James Mworia said attributing the growth to strong investment income and increased investment activity.
Mr Mworia said while unveiling their financial performance that they have capitalizing on their competitive advantage to become a Pan Africa company by creating world class destinations, hotels, residential and business complexes. So far they are working on developing world class destinations at a 100 acre site in Runda, Nairobi and 300 acre site on the shores of Lake Victoria in Entebbe, Uganda.
“We are pressing forward”, Mr Mworia said “to grow our assets under management to $ 344.83 million by 2014 and have made significant strides in achieving this ambition having grown from $ 68.97 million in 2009”.
The CEO expressed confidence in achieving this objective and indicated that the company has laid down a strategic plan to translate this targets into a reality.
The Net Asset Value (NAV) per share increased to $ 0.24, a growth of over 100 percent.
The CEO who is under 40 years said they are providing investors with access to a portfolio of inaccessible investment and aims to consistently deliver market beating returns. The 37 percent return on shareholder funds was consistent with Centum’s track record of delivering market beating returns. In 2010 Centum delivered a return of 56 percent and has consistently beaten the NSE Index over the the last six years.
The group EPS more than doubled to $ 0.04 from $ 0.02 in the previous period. The increased profitability of the company was attributed to strong performance across its three business lines, private equity, real estate and infrastructure and quoted private equity.
The private equity business investment portfolio is predominantly invested in the beverage and financial services sector and Centum’s share of profit grew by 57 percent.
The real estate investment portfolio recoded a value appreciation of 41 percent of the amount invested to $ 40.23 million. The Quoted Private Equity business line recorded returns which outperformed the NSE Index by at least 14 percent.
