Kenya's Mumias sees return to profit after $25 mln loss

By Richard Lough NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's Mumias Sugar fell to a 2.24 billion shilling pretax loss in the year through June, the company said on Tuesday, blaming higher regional supplies and cheap imports for a fall in prices. Shares of the company, Kenya's biggest grower and miller of sugar, fell 2.7 percent to 3.65 shillings after it acknowledged its results were below expectations. However, Mumias said it was confident of returning to profit soon. "The global and regional sugar supply has increased, resulting in much lower selling prices which further (hit) ... turnover when coupled with low production," Mumias said in a statement. "Cheap sugar imports also served to depress prices." Revenue in the 12 months through June fell 20 percent from the year before, when Mumias posted a profit of 1.76 billion shillings. Mumias said its sugar production fell 15 percent on the year to 147,320 tonnes, due to a fall in harvested cane and reduced factory efficiency. Low cane supply also led to a fall in power sales from its plant that burns bagasse, a sugar waste product, to generate electricity.