Umeme's Revenue Falls to Ushs4 Million in H1 2026 as Uganda Concession Winds Down

Umeme's revenue falls to Ushs4 million in H1 2026 as Uganda concession winds down

Umeme Limited, the company that until last year distributed electricity across Uganda and remains cross-listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, reported revenue of just Ushs4 million for the six months to 30 June 2026. That compares with Ushs503,521 million a year earlier, when the company still held three months of its distribution concession, a decline of Ushs503,517 million. The company posted a loss of Ushs21,870 million for the period, an improvement of Ushs144,844 million against the Ushs166,714 million loss in the same six months of 2025, and its board approved the unaudited results on 28 September 2026.

The collapse in revenue follows the natural expiry of Umeme's 20-year concession to distribute electricity in Uganda, which ended on 31 March 2025 under the terms of the country's original power-sector privatisation. Since then, Umeme has had no ongoing distribution business of its own to generate revenue from. The directors say the six months to June 2026 were instead spent on recovering the outstanding Buy Out amount and other claims due from the Government of Uganda. That recovery work is needed to formally close out the concession under the original Privatisation Agreements. Alongside it, the company reorganised the business to cut costs while it explores distribution opportunities in other markets.

That Buy Out amount is the crux of what's left of Umeme's business, and it's worth explaining plainly. When a government-run concession like this ends, the outgoing operator is contractually entitled to be compensated for infrastructure investments it made but hasn't yet recovered through tariffs. Uganda's government paid Umeme $118 million toward this in March 2025, based on a valuation from the country's Auditor General. Umeme disputes that figure and says it is owed $292 million in total, a $174 million gap it is now pursuing through the London Court of International Arbitration, with no timetable yet announced for a ruling.

Umeme H1 2026 Snapshot (Ushs millions)

Line item	H1 2026	YoY Change	H1 2025
Total revenue	4	-100.00%	503,521
Cost of sales	0	-100.00%	408,089
Gross profit	4	-100.00%	95,432
Other income	3,278	-76.71%	14,074
Total operating expenses	16,165	-93.31%	241,525
Operating loss	(12,883)	-90.24%*	(132,019)
Finance costs (net of finance income)	(8,987)	-60.62%*	(22,820)
Net loss	(21,870)	-86.88%*	(166,714)
Earnings per share (Ushs)	(13.5)	-86.85%*	(102.7)
Dividend per share (Ushs)	0	–	n/a
Total assets (30-Jun-26 / 31-Dec-25)	126,233	-11.92%	143,313
Total liabilities (30-Jun-26 / 31-Dec-25)	506,513	1.85%	497,302
Total equity (30-Jun-26 / 31-Dec-25)	(380,280)	7.43%*	(353,989)

Source: Umeme Limited unaudited interim financial statements for the six months ended 30 June 2026. Balance sheet figures compare 30 June 2026 to 31 December 2025, the last audited year end, per the company's own presentation, instead of to 30 June 2025. The rows marked * compare two loss figures, or a loss to negative equity. For those, the percentage-change formula can flip sign in a way that doesn't match the plain-language direction of the underlying number, so see the paragraphs below for what each one actually means in Ushs terms.

The starred rows read backwards: operating loss narrowed to Ushs12,883 million from Ushs132,019 million, net loss narrowed to Ushs21,870 million from Ushs166,714 million, and net finance cost fell to Ushs8,987 million from Ushs22,820 million, all genuine improvements the negative-base percentages understate. Total equity moved the other way, worsening to negative Ushs380,280 million from negative Ushs353,989 million.

Umeme's balance sheet is the clearest sign of how little is left of the business. Total assets fell to Ushs126,233 million at 30 June 2026 from Ushs143,313 million at the end of 2025, a decline of Ushs17,080 million. That drop was driven mostly by trade and other receivables shrinking to Ushs14,229 million from Ushs24,808 million, a fall of Ushs10,579 million, as claims get worked through. Total equity was already negative at the last year end and moved a further Ushs26,291 million into negative territory over the half. Trade and other payables, the single largest liability, grew over the same period, to Ushs505,302 million from Ushs494,377 million, an increase of Ushs10,925 million. Bank balances of Ushs110,265 million make up the vast majority of what Umeme still holds, and that cash figure is doing a lot of work in a company with almost no revenue of its own.

Umeme H1 2026 Key Ratios

Ratio	H1 2026	H1 2025 / 31-Dec-25
Gross profit margin	100.00%	18.95%
Operating profit margin	n/m	-26.22%
Net profit margin	n/m	-33.11%
Cost-to-income ratio	n/m	253.09%
Return on Assets (ROA), H1 2026 only	-17.33%	n/a
Return on Equity (ROE), H1 2026 only	5.75%*	n/a
Equity-to-Assets ratio (30-Jun-26 vs 31-Dec-25)	-301.25%	-247.00%
Debt-to-Equity ratio	n/m (equity negative)	n/m (equity negative)
Debt-to-Asset ratio (30-Jun-26 vs 31-Dec-25)	401.25%	347.00%
Dividend payout ratio	0.00%	n/a

Source: ApexHub Insights calculations from Umeme Limited's unaudited interim financial statements. H1 2026 margins are n/m since revenue is only Ushs4 million; ROA/ROE comparators are n/a with no 30 June 2025 balance sheet published; Debt-to-Equity is n/m given negative equity.

Two numbers matter here. The 5.75 percent Return on Equity looks positive but isn't, it's a net loss divided by negative equity, not a real return. And debt-to-asset, the more honest leverage read, rose to 401.25 percent of total assets from 347.00 percent at 31 December 2025, meaning liabilities now run roughly four times what Umeme owns, up from about three and a half times six months earlier.

The Directors did not recommend an interim dividend for the period, which fits the wider picture reported outside this release. Umeme's board has held dividend payments in reserve since the buyout dispute escalated, and the $118 million already received from the government has reportedly been banked and held in trust instead of distributed, pending the outcome of arbitration. Umeme did pay a special dividend of UGX222 per share for FY2025, declared on 24 June 2025 with an ex-date of 14 July 2025 and paid on 31 July 2025, so this isn't a company that has abandoned payouts altogether. It's one that has paused them since, while its main remaining asset, the disputed claim against the government, stays unresolved.

Zoom out from this one filing and Umeme is now best understood as a claim against the Ugandan government wrapped in a listed company, not an operating utility. Its shares, cross-listed on the NSE since 2012 as the first non-Kenyan company to do so, fell from KES9.22 in February 2026 to KES6.04 at the close on 30 September 2026, a decline of KES3.18, or 34.49 percent, per NSE trading data tracked by afx.kwayisi.org. In trading on 30 September 2026, UMME ranged between a low of KES5.96 and a high of KES6.46, with 76,064 shares changing hands across 100 deals for a gross turnover of KES459,955.22, closing down 1.31 percent on the day. The company reported a full-year loss of about Ushs223,600 million for 2025. Set against that, the Ushs21,870 million loss booked in this half suggests the pace of losses has slowed since the immediate shock of losing the concession, even if the underlying business has not returned.

Bottom line for investors: this is not a results announcement about an operating business, it's a status update on a legal claim. The Ushs110,265 million in bank balances and the disputed $174 million gap in the London arbitration are what actually determine whether Umeme shareholders eventually see value returned, not any of the margin or profitability ratios in this release. Anyone holding or considering these shares should treat this as an event-driven, binary-outcome situation tied to the arbitration timetable, not a conventional utility investment, and should not expect a dividend until that dispute is resolved.

Source: Umeme Limited unaudited interim financial statements for the six months ended 30 June 2026, approved by the board on 28 September 2026. Share price, trading volume and dividend reference data are from NSE trading data tracked by afx.kwayisi.org.