East African Portland Cement cuts loss to Ksh.1 billion

Manufacturer East African Portland Cement Company (EAPC) has cut its half year loss through December 31, 2020 to Ksh.1 billion from Ksh.1.6 billion last year.

The loss reduction is heavily attributable to lower administrative and selling expenses which halved to Ksh.540.5 million from Ksh.1.1 billion.

“This accrued from the ongoing business re-organisation geared towards aligning manpower costs to current productivity levels,” the firn said in a statement on Friday.

EAPC also booked a greater Ksh.70.6 million tax credit in the period from Ksh.59.6 million a year earlier.

The company’s financing costs however shot up further to Ksh.269.5 million from Ksh.253 million even as it seeks to close out a planned restructure of its loan to cool tame the charges
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“The company is at the tail end of terminating its corporate loan facility to eliminate the high finance costs through a balance sheet restructuring program which will yield sufficient cash inflows for optimal working capital and also fund plant refurbishment to attain competitive cost of production,” the company added.

EAPC continues to bleed from inefficiencies in production and distribution with its costs of sale growing ahead of sales revenues at Ksh.1.7 billion against a lower revenue base of Ksh.1.4 billion.

The manufacturer has pegged its turnaround on the sale of its bulk land holdings in Ath-River.

The process has however resulted in an all out board fall out which saw Acting Managing Director Stephen Nthei ejected earlier this month.

The company is currently recruiting a new MD with Daniel Kiprono currently stewarding the firm on an interim basis.