(Adds details, background)
NAIROBI, July 29 (Reuters) – Kenya’s East African Breweries
(EABL) said on Thursday its pretax profit for the full
year through June rose slightly, helped by higher revenue, and
said it did not plan to pay a dividend thanks to uncertainty
from COVID-19 restrictions.
The brewer, which is controlled by Britain’s Diageo Plc
, said in a statement pretax profit was up 2% to 10.86
billion shillings ($100 million), while net revenue rose 15% to
86 billion shillings.
It had said in January it expected an improvement in sales
for its second half, helped by easing of some restrictions that
had been put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Kenya,
Uganda and Tanzania, where it operates.
"Through fiscal 2021, the pandemic continued to impact the
business negatively across East Africa due to the restrictions
in Kenya and Uganda and the general decline in disposable incomes in the region," EABL Chief Executive Jane Karuku said.Due to uncertainty in the external environment, its directors did not recommend a dividend payment. In the year to end June 2020, it paid out a dividend per share of 3 shillings.($1 = 108.5000 Kenyan shillings) (Reporting by George Obulutsa Editing by David Holmes)