NAIROBI (Reuters) - Fuel marketer Total Kenya returned to profit last year, boosted by a reduction in financing expenses, the company said on Thursday.

The group made a full-year pretax profit of 2.1 billion shillings ($24.26 million), up from a pretax loss of 64 million shillings in 2012.

A stable macroeconomic environment and expected return on planned investments make the board "confident of a positive return in line with the growth strategy" this year, the company said.

Total Kenya, part of French oil major Total, reported that finance costs decreased by 1.28 billion shillings to 279 million shillings, helped by a 5.2 billion shilling injection from the Total group in 2012.

The company said it had won several contracts to supply the industry with refined products, helping to increase gross sales by 29 percent to 155 billion shillings.

Earnings per share rose to 2.08 shillings in 2013, reversing a loss per share of 0.32 shillings last year.

The company proposed an increased dividend of 0.60 shillings per share, against 0.20 shillings for 2012.

($1 = 86.5500 Kenyan Shillings)

not bad. this is why I bought it last year coz it was an obvious turn around.

but those preference shares scare me. at eps of 2.08 which includes preference shares id say it's fairly valued. but market may want to push it up.

let's hope kk can make at least 1bn pbt

KK hawawesmake; On TK, PBT is Kes. 2.084B following interest expense saving of Kes. 1.276B and Glencore 2012 one-time exceptional expense of Kes. 0.535B

#Word

do you think it warrants to trade at a pe of 18 (including prefs)

adam.was the richest man to exist with face to face communication with the creator of everything in this world .that didnt make eve satisfied.so do your best but dont stress to get a satisfied woman.

I agree that is quite high and they would have to work really hard to warrant such a high PE. However i expect that the recovery is well underway and barring any major movements from the prefs, the price should continue to rise.