NAIROBI: Kenyan media company Standard Group posted a 90 percent fall in pretax profit for the six months ending June, days after warning of a sharp drop in earnings this year.
Pretax profit fell to 21.3 million Kenyan shillings ($200,000) from 205 million in the same period of 2014, hurt by weakness in the company’s television segment. The company had on Friday warned its full-year earnings would be at least 25 percent lower than last year, hurt by disruption resulting from a countrywide digital migration of television signals.
Four Kenyan television stations, including one belonging to Standard Group, were off air for 19 days in February after the government switched off all analogue signals, leading to advertising losses for media companies. Standard, which also publishes newspapers, runs websites and owns a radio station, said it expects earning to improve in the second half of the year after a difficult start to 2015.
“The board is optimistic barring unforeseen factors that the group will record (an) improved performance in the second half of the year,” the company said in a statement. Standard’s television business saw revenue drop 27 percent to 275 million shillings, but the company’s radio segment achieved growth of 116 percent.
