Kenyan tyre maker Sameer said on Wednesday it swung into a loss in 2014, hurt by competition from subsidised imports into Kenya and political unrest in some of its export markets.
Sameer, which had issued a profit warning in August saying its 2014 profit would fall by at least a quarter, reported a 69.46 million shilling ($757,057) loss before tax for last year, compared with a profit of 456.5 million shillings in 2013.
Total revenues fell 6 percent to 3.78 billion shillings, while operating expenses rose 10 percent to 1.01 billion shillings, the company said in a statement.
Without naming countries of origin, Sameer said its performance was hurt by subsidised tyre imports from the East.
“While some countries, such as the USA and India, have imposed countervailing and anti-dumping measures on these tyres, the African markets have not taken similar initiatives to protect local manufacturers,” the company said.
“Export sales also declined in 2014, given civil and political unrest in certain of our markets as well as hard currency shortages in others,” it said without naming the countries.
Sameer reported a loss per share of 0.24 shillings compared with 1.44 shillings in 2013. It said it would not pay a dividend, having paid a dividend of 0.30 shillings a share in 2013.
($1 = 91.7500 Kenyan shillings)