Nairobi-listed marketing group WPP Scangroup recorded a net loss of KSh 713.67 Mn for the year ended 31 December 2025, widening 40.8% from KSh 506.74 Mn a year earlier, confirming what the group flagged in a December 2025 profit warning, its fourth in five years.
- •The results are due to a crippling client loss, leadership overhaul, costly restructuring, and the wind-down of its Tanzania operations which have converged into one of the group's most damaging years on record.
- •Revenue fell 16.3% to KSh 2.04 Bn on the back of reduced client spends and account losses, with gross profit dropping sharper at 27.9% to KSh 1.45 Bn.
- • The accumulated deficit deepened 65.5% to KSh 1.76 Bn, and no dividend was declared for the second consecutive year.
The single most consequential event was the termination of Ogilvy Africa's contract with Airtel Africa in May 2025, ending a 15-year relationship that had contributed nearly a fifth of group sales. Airtel moved its business to Publicis Groupe Africa and The Partnership, a firm founded by three former Scangroup executives.
Insiders say at least seven agencies now operating in Kenya are led by former Scangroup staff who departed with client relationships intact.
Revenue fell KSh 398 Mn year-on-year, but gross profit fell KSh 540 Mn, nearly double the revenue decline, compressing the gross margin from approximately 82% to 71% of revenue. Two items cushioned the pre-tax loss: a KSh 135 Mn swing in net impairment charges and a KSh 301 Mn swing from foreign exchange losses to gains.
Stripped of these, the underlying operating deterioration was materially larger than reported figures suggest. Interest income also halved to KSh 125.99 Mn on lower deposit balances and reduced rates.
On leadership, the group cycled through three chief executives in the space of months. Patricia Ithau departed in July 2025 at the end of her contract. COO Miriam Kaggwa held the interim role before the board appointed Akua Brayie Owusu-Nartey as Group CEO effective November 2025, with a mandate to stabilise operations and return the group to profitability.
A restructuring programme launched during the year incurred a one-off severance charge of KSh 176 Mn. Operating expenses fell 2.5% to KSh 2.40 Bn, but the savings did not offset the revenue loss. Cash fell from 2.14 Bn to 864.48 Mn, a drawdown of KSh 1.28 Bn, with net cash used in operations totalling KSh 678.21 Mn.
In a subsequent events disclosure, the board confirmed that from April 2026 the Tanzania business is transitioning to a partnership model, with the affected subsidiaries expected to go dormant and to be prepared on a non-going-concern basis. The board said the transition does not affect the consolidated group's going-concern status, framing the exit as part of a broader push toward a leaner operating structure.
