Longhorn reports Kshs 1.5bn in profits for 2015-2016 financial year

Longhorn Publishers Limited MD,Simon Ngigi (L),President’s-advisor on education,Dr.Kilemi Mwiria(C) and Longhorn Chairman Francis Nyammo peruse copies of reference materials launched by the publisher.

Longhorn Publishers Limited reported a group sales of Kshs 1.5bn, an increase of 77 per cent compared to the 2014-2015 financial year. The group attributed its performance to growing export sales, improved local performance and uptake of school reference materials. It also reported a pre-tax profit  rising to 43 per cent.

This results were announced during the Publisher’s annual  general meeting with shareholders on October 29, 2016 at Hilton Hotel, Nairobi.

The meeting  discussed certain agendas including approval of the minutes of the AGM held in December 2015, to receive, consider and adopt the financial statement for the year ending 30th June 2016 together with the Chairman’s statement, and the Directors’ and Auditors’ reports. To approve the payment of a first and final dividend of Kshs 0.35 per share in respect of the financial year ended 30th June 2016 as recommended by the Directors.

In regard to dividend totaling Kshs 95,354,000, it was recommended that shareholders would be paid o.35 cents per share and  would be paid on or before January 27th 2017 to the shareholders on the Register of Members as at the close of business on 30th September 2016. Here a shareholder argued that the dividend was to small and that he wasn’t comfortable with it. Responding to this issue, the Chairman  of Longhorn, Mr Francis Thombe said that the dividend was being paid per share of what one has bought.

Another  agenda at the meeting was re-election of directors. It was proposed by the board and shareholders that Mr Francis Thombe Nyammo and Mr Ali Hussein Kassim offered themselves for re-election office. Their re-election  was generally accepted by the minority shareholders and board.

Longhorn also announced that it intends to obtain a 92 per cent shareholding stake  in LawAfrica Publishing Limited by end of this year. “We plan to acquire a majority stake of 92 per cent in LawAfrica Publishing Limited, a leading legal publisher in the region. This will give us a stronger tertiary offering and dominant position in a growing market, ” remarked Chairman of Longhorn Publishers Limited, Mr. Francis Thombe at the AGM.

Recently, Longhorn Publishers launched a digital platform where the customers can directly buy  books online. The system is available on android devices only. “Being a market leader in digital technology in schools, we intend to sign a contract with the government  to supply about 100 per cent of digital content  for standard one pupils in the Digital Literacy Programme(DLP) that is why we launched the platform,” said Longhorn MD, Simon Ngigi.

Lastly, one of the debated agenda was sale of  its head office located along Funzi road, Nairobi in order  to raise KES500m. The land is known as  LR 209/504 and belonged to the company.

 

This agenda brought about a misunderstanding among the shareholders and the Board as one argued that after selling the property, it would be difficult to find another property as land prices or rates in Kenya keep appreciating.

After careful considerations, it was agreed by three-quarter fourths of majority not to pass the reslution.