WPP Scangroup’s half year loss deepened to KSh254 million in the six months to June 2026, up from KSh208.3 million a year earlier, as the region’s largest marketing and communications group continued to lose clients and cut costs to slow the bleeding.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange listed firm released unaudited results on 21 August 2026 showing gross profit falling 33.7% to KSh539.7 million, down from KSh815.6 million in the same period last year. The company will not pay an interim dividend.
Loss per share widened to KSh0.56 from KSh0.46 in H1 2025.
The Numbers
| Metric (KSh) | H1 2026 | H1 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross profit | 539.7M | 815.6M | -33.7% |
| Loss before tax | 227.5M | 173.6M | +31.0% |
| Loss for the period | 254.0M | 208.3M | +21.9% |
| Loss per share | 0.56 | 0.46 | +21.7% |
| Net interest income | 28.1M | 92.1M | -69.5% |
| Cash and equivalents | 503.3M | 1,141.2M | -55.9% |
| Total assets | 5.8B | 6.6B | -12.3% |
| Total equity | 3.8B | 4.6B | -17.4% |
Why Profit Fell
Client spending pulled back across several key accounts, and the group continued to feel the full year effect of client attrition that began in 2025, according to management. That combination squeezed gross profit down by more than a third.
The pressure follows Ogilvy Africa’s loss of the Airtel Africa account in May 2025, a contract that had run for fifteen years and once accounted for roughly a quarter of group revenue. Airtel shifted the business to Publicis Groupe Africa and to a rival agency founded by former Scangroup executives, one of at least seven such firms now operating in Kenya and led by people who left Scangroup with client relationships intact.
Operating and administrative expenses dropped by KSh283 million, a result the company credits to restructuring carried out in 2025 and tighter control over overheads. That cost discipline was not enough to offset the drop in revenue, and the group’s operating loss still narrowed only slightly.
The wider pre tax loss also reflects a steep decline in net interest income, down 69.5% to KSh28.1 million as cash balances thinned. Cash and cash equivalents closed the period at KSh503.3 million, roughly half what the group held twelve months earlier. Some of the damage was offset by improved debt collections, which helped reverse part of the group’s expected credit loss provisions.
Balance Sheet Under Strain
Total assets fell 12.3% to KSh5.8 billion and total equity dropped 17.4% to KSh3.8 billion, pulled down by an accumulated deficit that has now grown to KSh2.0 billion.
The results arrive months after WPP Scangroup’s chief operating officer Miriam Kaggwa announced her exit in May 2026, following a stretch in which she had also served as chief financial officer and acting chief executive. Her departure came as the group’s full year 2025 net loss widened to KSh713.7 million, the company’s fourth profit warning in five years.
That run of losses has also drawn scrutiny from shareholders. A group controlling 13.59% of the company, led by former chief executive Bharat Thakrar, requisitioned a meeting to remove the board, citing five years of financial decline and what they call governance failures.
What Management Is Saying
The Board of Directors said H1 2026 operating performance came in line with expectations, with operating losses down 3% from a year earlier. It pointed to a difficult market marked by lower client spending and continued fallout from account losses.
Management said it remains focused on strengthening operational performance, improving cash generation, and lifting working capital efficiency for the rest of the year. The group is running a two year strategy aimed at reaching break even by 2027 and returning to profitability, built on stabilising revenue, tighter commercial and cost discipline, and investment in data, technology and AI enabled solutions.
Company Secretary Winniefred Jumba signed off the results on 21 August 2026.
Outlook
WPP Scangroup now faces a stretch that will test whether cost cuts alone can carry the business back to profitability, or whether it needs to rebuild the client base it lost over the past eighteen months. With cash reserves nearly halved and equity shrinking, the group’s break even target for 2027 leaves little room for another setback.
