Kenyan investment firm TransCentury recorded a pretax loss of 2.11 billion shillings ($22.4 million) for 2014, partly blaming a slide in revenues due to some project delays, but said 2015 promised more infrastructure work. TransCentury, which reported a pretax profit of 859 million shillings in 2013, was set up in 1997 as an investment club by a group of wealthy Kenyan friends and now mainly focuses on electrical equipment and engineering work. The company on Friday blamed a 36 percent slide in revenue at its engineering division for the 2014 performance and said it also recorded a loss when it sold a 34 percent stake in rail operator Rift Valley Railways last year. The group sold its shares in the operator of the Kenya-Uganda line in March 2014 for 3.8 billion shillings, saying the investment failed to deliver the returns expected. Chief Executive Officer Gachao Kiuna told Reuters the firm had recovered its initial outlay for the stake but lost about 1 billion shillings from associated costs of the investment, which it had held for more than seven years. The company said in a statement it was optimistic about 2015 as it expected to secure work from major infrastructure projects by the government and private business in areas such as energy. Kenya has found commercial quantities of oil. "The business outlook is positive with growth prospects in both domestic and regional markets, including major infrastructure projects both ongoing and planned across the region," TransCentury said. (Reuters)