TransCentury board chairman Shaka Kariuki. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU 
Investment firm TransCentury saw its negative equity widen to
Sh3.3 billion in the year ended December on the back of continued
losses.
The company has not announced new
capital-raising plans even as its external auditors KPMG Kenya
emphasised the company’s difficulty in meeting its short-term
obligations.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed
company first wiped out its capital in the year ended December 2017 when
it booked a negative net worth of Sh112 million.
In
the review period, TransCentury made a loss of Sh3.5 billion, narrowing
it down from a loss of Sh4.3 billion a year earlier. The company’s
expenses, including finance and operating costs, continue to surpass its
revenues.
TransCentury says it will benefit from a recent debt restructuring exercise whose details it has not communicated to the market.
“While the 2018 financial results do not fully reflect the
significant progress made in key areas highlighted above, the scorecard
is already positive, and the benefits will start to come through in
2019,” TransCentury said in a statement.
The larger
negative equity, however, means that shareholders would not get a cent
if the company was to be liquidated today to pay off creditors.
TransCentury’s
share, however, is trading at a premium of Sh3.6 per share on the NSE,
assigning the company a market value of Sh1.3 billion.
Private
equity firm Kuramo Capital, which acquired a 25 percent stake in
TransCentury in 2016 for Sh2 billion as a turnaround investment, is
among those counting major paper losses from the company’s weaker
performance.
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