Maputo — Mozambique's publicly owned Ports and Rail Company (CFM) last year recorded a drop in its profits of about a billion meticais (15.7 million dollars).
The company's profits fell from 3.3 billion meticais in 2021 to 2.3 billion in 2022. According to the CFM annual report and accounts, even with this slippage, the company increased its dividends to the State in 2022.
A CFM note points to cyclones, derailments, less freight traffic than expected, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine as factors that influenced this performance.
"However, even with the drop in profits in 2022, the company increased by 23 per cent the dividends to the sole shareholder, the Mozambican State, represented by the Institute for the Management of State Holdings (IGEPE), by channeling to IGEPE 944.3 million Meticais (40 percent of total profit), compared with the 769.9 million Meticais paid in 2021', reads the document.
Of the remaining profit, CFM will reserve 236 million Meticais (against 334 million in 2021) for social purposes and 1.1 billion Meticais (50 percent of total profit) for investment (against 2.2 billion Meticais, equivalent to 67 percent, reserved in 2021).
"CFM's balance sheet shows that the company ended 2022 with total assets, valued at 72 billion Meticais, against 63 billion recorded in 2021. Total liabilities were 26.7 billion Meticais, against 21 billion Meticais accounted for in 2021', adds the note.
