Investment firm Cytonn on Friday announced three fold growth in net profit to Sh398 million for the year ending December 31, 2017.
The 276.7 per cent rise in profit was up from 105.7 million recorded within the same period in 2016.
Cytonn attributed the sharp rise to a strong revenue growth arising from construction projects and the realization of gains from investment in the stock market.
The firms group revenue doubled to Sh1.01billion from Sh543.94 million announced in 2016, while that of the company went up to Sh193.4 million from Sh119.86 million.
“2017 was characterised by a tough operating environment as a result of the prolonged electioneering period and the low credit growth to the private sector. We saw this as an opportunity to take advantage of a quiet market and acquire good assets at attractive valuations. This all resulted in strong financial,” the chief executive Edwin Dande said.
The strong balance sheet saw its total assets increase by 49.4 per cent to Sh17.7 billion as at December. 2017 from Sh11.8 billion in 2016.
REAL ESTATE
The growth in total assets was driven by strong growth in the real estate projects under mandate, with Investment Property growing to Sh10.8 billion in 2017 from Sh8.9billion in 2016.
Investments in financial services through quoted Private Equity Investments delivered Sh342.1 million to the firm in revenue in 2017.
Some of the investments made by the firm during the review period include the acquisition of both real estate and financial services which include Kilimani development and actively trading listed financial services counters, namely KCB Group and NIC Group.
Dande further attributed the growth to their diversification strategy that saw them invest in the education and hospitality sector, and the opening of a new branch in Nyeri which servers as the Mt.Kenya office.
“In real estate, our main business area, the total value of projects under mandate grew to Sh82 billion across 10 investment ready projects. Two of our projects broke ground in the year 2017, namely Taraji Heights, a mixed-use development that sits on a 2.8-acre piece of land valued at Shs 2.5 billion in Ruaka, and The Ridge, a comprehensive mixed-use development worth Sh12.0 billion, which sits on a 10.0-acre parcel of land in Ridgeways,” he said.
Other real estate projects unveiled during the period include River Run Estates valued at Sh15 billion and the Kilimani-based iconic mixed-use development project, Cytonn Towers valued at Sh20 billion.
In the next 30 days, the firm is expected to enter the unit trust market following a 100 per cent acquisition of city based Seriani Asset managers.