The Nation Media Group (NMG) has warned of an expected decline in full-year profits for the year ending December 2023.
This decline, anticipated to be more than 25%, is attributed to a challenging business environment.
NMG attributes the expected profit drop to tough economic conditions in the country.
“Like most sectors of the economy, media business, particularly in Kenya, has been adversely impacted by headwinds mainly attributable to the relentless increases in prices of basic commodities, a drastic rise in fuel prices, runaway depreciation of the Kenya Shilling, rising interest rates, and higher taxes,” read the statement.
Additionally, global price increases, a weakened Kenya shilling against the US dollar, and higher distribution costs due to fuel prices have resulted in significant incremental direct costs compared to the previous year.
These factors have not only increased the cost of doing business but also reduced consumer spending power.
In 2022, NMG recorded an after-tax profit of Kshs 318.5 million, down from Kshs 493.1 million in 2021.
This indicates a potential third consecutive year of decline for the largest media outlet in the region as advertising revenue and print sales continue to shrink.
Despite these challenges, NMG is implementing cost-containment measures and remains confident about its long-term prospects.
The company is investing in product innovation, diversifying revenue streams, and transforming into an agile, customer-centric, and data-driven media company to deliver long-term shareholder value.
Earlier this year, NMG reduced its workforce to manage its wage bill, following a similar exercise in the last quarter of 2022.
However, NMG stated that it would be difficult to offset the increased cost of operations by passing them on to consumers through a price increase.
Nation Media Group (NMG) currently has a share price of KES 20.00.
As of the last trading day on Thursday, October 26, 2023, NMG closed at 20.00 KES per share on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).
The company started the year with a share price of 15.95 KES and has since seen a year-to-date performance gain of 25.4%, making it the 10th-ranked stock on the NSE.
Over the past three months (July 28–October 26, 2023), NMG has been the 15th most traded stock on the NSE.
During this period, a total volume of 7.52 million NMG shares were traded in 458 deals, valued at KES 150 million. This averages to about 119,359 traded shares per session.
The highest volume of 3.03 million shares was traded on October 26th, while the lowest was just 200 shares on October 17th.
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