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NAIROBI, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Kenya’s Nation Media Group NMG.NR said on Wednesday it swung into profit in the first half of this year from a loss a year earlier boosted by increased advertising revenues.
East Africa’s biggest news publisher, with several newspaper titles, broadcast stations and digital assets, said pretax profit for the six months ended June 30 was 410.7 million shillings ($3.75 million), compared to a loss of 328 million shillings a year earlier.
Turnover rose to 3.72 billion shillings from 3.26 billion in the first half of 2020, it added.
"The recovery in business performance that started in the second half of 2020 has continued to hold up to June 2021, mainly attributable to growth in print and television advertising revenue, digital advertising revenue," it said in a statement.
In first half 2020, when Nation posted a loss, Kenya had put in place restrictions aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 that led to a slowdown in economic activity and business closure, especially small and medium ones.
Nation said its earnings per share rose to 1.4 shillings from a loss of 1.9 shillings in first half 2020.
In June, Nation Media launched Kenya’s first share buyback programme, aiming to buy 10% or about 20 million of its issued shares from their current owners.
It said on Wednesday that it had hit 80.9% of the buyback target as of Aug. 23. ($1=109.5500 Kenyan shillings)
(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
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