Longhorn Publishers Plc has issued a profit warning following the disruption of learning due to COVID-19. The publisher expects its full-year earnings for the year ending June 2020 to be at least 25% lower than last year’s.
A cautionary statement from the Board of Directors reveals that measures to combat the pandemic have severely affected its business.
“The COVID-19 crisis and the related mitigating measures implemented by governments in the regions where Longhorn operates, including the suspension of learning in schools, have had adverse impacts on the business and the performance for the financial year,” reads the statement.
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The Kenyan publisher operates in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Zambia. Schools in all countries closed down due to the pandemic. Zambia and Uganda intended to reopen schools on June 1, whereas Rwanda plans to open schools in September. Similarly, Kenya plans to gradually resume learning by September while Uganda awaits further communication.
Nevertheless, the company intends to leverage digital learning solutions to improve its performance for the period.
Longhorn recorded a 4% revenue growth to KSh 725m and a net profit of Ksh 69 million in H1 2019.
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