Kenya’s Longhorn profit increases due to regional expansion

Kenyan book publisher Longhorn reported a 78 percent increase in its pretax profit for the six months ended in December. The growth was driven by the company’s expansion into regional markets to supply school textbooks. Longhorn reported a pretax profit of 43.1 million Kenyan shillings.

However, the company said the introduction of value-added tax (VAT) on books in Kenya in September had marked a major setback, but that business had continued to grow nonetheless. Furthermore, Longhorn said it had won government contracts to supply school textbooks in Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda but the company’s directors did not recommend payment of an interim dividend from the half-year results.

Source: The Africa Report