Centum Narrows Losses, But Two Rivers SEZ Still a Long Road to Recovery

By Benadeta Mwaura - Reporter

Kenya, 28 November 2025 - In its latest financials, Centum Investment Company reported that its net loss for the six months ended September 2025 narrowed slightly to Sh 326.14 million, compared with a loss of Sh 346.64 million in the same period last year, thanks largely to a tax credit that softened the blow.

But beneath the improved headline lies a more complicated performance: pre-tax losses soared, more than tripling compared to the prior period, owing to weak results across several business units including real estate, trading, and its much-touted Two Rivers development and SEZ.

What Went Wrong, And What Helped

Centum explained the smaller net loss by pointing to a Sh 296.71 million tax credit booked during the period, a flip from the previous year’s tax expense. This helped offset widening pre-tax losses.

Yet four of the group’s six business units posted losses under the hood. The real-estate arm, which includes property development and the Two Rivers project, bore the brunt. Because of accounting rules, ongoing costs, from marketing to financing, have to be recognized immediately, even if revenue from sales only comes later, once units are completed and fully paid. That mismatch hurts reported profitability.

The group’s “trading business” (which covers investments in firms such as Isuzu East Africa, NAS Airport Services and Africa Crest Education) continued losing money, though slightly less than in the prior period. Meanwhile, financial-services operations delivered modest profit, but not enough to offset the larger structural pressure.

Two Rivers SEZ: Ambition vs. Realities

Centum had pinned high hopes on Two Rivers, and more recently on Two Rivers SEZ/Trific, to turn around its corporate fortunes. As we documented earlier, the SEZ was granted authority to bypass Nairobi County approvals in a bid to speed up development and attract investment.

But even with that regulatory boost, the company revealed that the SEZ accounted for a substantial share of the losses. Under IFRS accounting, costs to build infrastructure, finance towers, and set up utilities are expensed up front. Until Tenants move in and payments flow, such costs weigh heavily on results.

Sources inside Centum say the company is in advanced negotiations to sell a completed office tower, a move that could clear development loans, eliminate future finance costs on that asset and free up capital for subsequent SEZ towers.

What This Means: Risk, Patience and Strategy

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For shareholders and investors, Centum’s results bring cautious relief. The narrower loss shows resilience, but also underscores the volatility and uncertainty tied to real-estate valuations and the long timelines of SEZ development.

1. Revenue recognition lag in real estate means profits (or losses) today may not reflect

actual long-term value.

2. Success of Two Rivers SEZ depends on more than regulatory clearance; it requires

attracting tenants, ensuring infrastructure uptake (power, water), and converting sales

or leases into cash flow.

3. The company’s ability to manage finance costs, restructure debt, and divest non-core

assets will matter a lot in 2026 and beyond.

For the wider economy, Centum’s struggle illustrates a broader trend: Kenya’s real-estate and investment-holding firms are riding a valuation-heavy wave, where book gains and losses shift with interest rates, property-market sentiment, and macroeconomic conditions. But until those valuations translate into real cash transactions, many such firms remain vulnerable to liquidity and cost shocks.

What’s in For Investors, Nairobi, Kenya

Centum is one of Kenya’s largest listed investment firms and a bellwether for the real-estate plus private-equity sector. Its performance signals how high-value, infrastructure-heavy investments fare under changing economic conditions.

The Two Rivers SEZ case also shows that regulatory shortcuts (like bypassing county approvals) can help accelerate development, but they don’t eliminate the financial and market risks that come with long-term real-estate investments.