East African Cables posts 2015 loss on forex, output disruptions

East African Cables reported a loss of 1.09 billion shillings ($10.75 million) for 2015 on Wednesday, but said a strong order book due to booming energy and construction projects in the region could help improve its performance.

The firm, which makes cables for the utility and telecoms industries and households, said disruptions to output as it upgrades a factory in Kenya, as well as foreign exchange losses and depressed demand due to political uncertainty all hurt its performance for the year.

It posted a pretax profit of 507.5 million shillings in 2014. Revenue dropped to 3.7 billion shillings from 5 billion in 2014, the company said.

"The Group opened the year with a strong order book spurred by the developments in the energy and construction sectors in the region. Positively, the expanded factory provides us with the opportunity to serve the regional economies more efficiently and give value to stakeholders," it said in a statement.

It posted a loss per share of 2.21 shillings from positive 1.16 shillings in 2014.

The company directors did not recommend a dividend payment.