KPC profit jumps to Sh7.5bn on higher sales

Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) recorded a 22.9 percent jump in profit in the year ended June, helped by higher sales on the back of the weakening shilling against hard currencies.

Disclosures made to Parliament show that the State-owned firm posted a profit before tax of Sh7.5 billion in the review period compared to pre-tax earnings of Sh6.1 billion the year before.

Throughput along KPC’s line jumped six percent to 8,675,034 cubic metres from 8,183,995 cubic metres which –coupled with a sharp depreciation of the shilling— boosted revenues.

Read: KPC stopped from paying Sh4.5bn as contractors fight

KPC raised Sh32.5 billion in sales in the period under review, a 24 percent jump from Sh26.2 billion a year earlier.

The shilling has since last year been dropping against the dollar and exchanged at 140.5 units to the greenback in June compared to 119 units in the same month last year, significantly boosting revenues from transit fuel that are priced in US dollars.

KPC also says that throughput increased, pointing to growing demand for fuel locally and in the transit markets of Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and the DR Congo.

“The positive difference is attributed to improved throughput growth by six percent and impact of the Kenyan shilling depreciation on dollar-denominated sales, translating to a profit before tax of Sh7.5 billion for the financial year 2022/23,” reads the document on KPC’s performance.

The Treasury had given KPC a revenue target of Sh30.7 billion in the period, betting on increased demand for fuel in the domestic and transit markets.

In the year that ended in June 2022, domestic sales accounted for 55 percent of the throughput or 4,537,535 cubic metres.

KPC is tasked with storing imported fuel and transporting the product from the port of Mombasa to the hinterland and neighbouring countries.

→ (email protected)