East African Breweries Limited (EABL) has announced a 27.7 per cent drop in net profit for the half year ended December.
The beer maker’s net profit from continuing business for six months through December 31 grew by a marginal 1.84 per cent to Sh. 5.59 billion compared with Sh. 5.48 billion in the same period a year ago, its unaudited financial statement showed.
The Sh 5.59 billion profit is a 27.78 per cent drop compared to Sh7.73 billion a year. Sales revenues fell 6.29 per cent in the half-year period to Sh. 35.16 billion from Sh. 37.51 billion previously.
EABL partially attributed the drop to the increased taxation of its products including beer.
Nonetheless, EABL announced that it will pay its shareholders a total interim dividend of Sh1.5 billion.