Kenya’s Nation Media Group has had its pretax profit fell 35 per cent to Ksh761.8 million in the first half of this year, hurt by falling advertising and circulation volumes and provisions for overdue debt.
The biggest news publisher in East Africa, with newspapers, radio and television stations in Kenya as well as Uganda and Tanzania, said turnover fell 7 per cent to Ksh4.92 billion in the six months to end June.
It said in a statement its performance was affected by a Ksh292 million provision for overdue debt, compared with an Ksh18 million debt in first half 2017, caused by delays in payments, especially by the government.
Foreign exchange depreciation, higher global newsprint prices and a week-long shutdown of its Kenyan NTV television station early this year also hit its bottomline, the group said.