Rising sales lift Bamburi Cement 2015 pretax profit

Kenya‘s Bamburi Cement posted a 46 percent rise in full-year pretax profit to 8.46 billion shillings ($83.51 million), helped by increased sales and investment income and foreign exchange gains.

The company, Kenya‘s biggest cement maker and controlled by Lafarge Holcim, said in a statement its turnover rose 9 percent to 39.2 billion shillings.

Bamburi said it made a foreign exchange gain of 104 million shillings from a loss of 170 million shillings in 2014, while investment income rose to 374 million shillings from 349 million shillings.

“Turnover increased … driven by increased demand in the key domestic markets in Kenya and Uganda resulting mainly from growth in large infrastructure projects and contractor segments, despite some slow down in domestic market in the last quarter,” Bamburi said.

Earnings per share shot up to 14.49 shillings from 9.80 shillings, it said.

It recommended a dividend of 7.00 shillings per share, up from 6.00 shillings in 2014.