KenolKobil shares resumed trading on Wednesday at the Nairobi Securities Exchange after a one-month suspension, a day after the firm issued a profit warning.

Kenya’s largest oil marketer said profits for the period ending June 2012 would fall by at least 25 per cent, citing lower international oil prices and weak currencies.

The news came as the NSE said it had received clearance from the Capital Market Authority to allow the firm’s shares to resume trading at the NSE.

“Pursuant to section 11(3) (1) of the Capital Market Authority Act (Chapter 485A), the Capital Market Authority has directed the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to lift the suspension in the trading of the shares of KenolKobil with effect from June 20, 2012,” the NSE said in a statement.

The company’s shares were suspended from trading on May 9, after its major shareholders entered into exclusive talks for the sale of their shareholding to Puma Energy, a subsidiary of Trafigura Beheer.

The firms said increased volatility in local currencies in the countries in which the company operates had put a strain on its expected profits for the first half of the year.

“The company currently projects earnings for the year ending December 31, 2012 may be materially lower than reported for the same period in 2011,” the company said in a statement. “Should international oil prices, currency trends and financing costs among other factors improve, it would reverse some of these negative effects and reflect more positive results for the full year 2012," it added.

A warning is issued if a company expects profits to fall by more than 25 per cent at any given time period. The firm’s net profit stood at Ksh3.2 billion ($37.2 million) in the year ending December 2011 compared with Ksh1.9 billion ($22.3 million) in the previous year as sales more than doubled to Ksh222.4 billion ($2.6 billion).

Going by the profit warning, the firm expects full year earnings to be below Ksh2.4 billion ($28.2 million). Puma energy had indicated that after buying out the major shareholders, it would also acquire the shares owned by retail investors, which means the company would change from a public company to a private one, and its shares would cease trading at the NSE.

“Puma Energy intends to pursue a 100 per cent takeover where the minority shareholders would have an option to sell their shares through a mandatory offer at the same price as the majority shareholders,” KenolKobil chief executive Jacob Segman, told Business Daily, our sister publication in May.