Longhorn Kenya Limited has this week made history by becoming the first Kenyan publishing firm to list its shares at the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
The company will be selling about 58.5 million shares by introduction.
The shares, which debuted at the Nairobi Securities Exchange on Wednesday had an offer price of Sh14 each but the first deal sold 1,000 shares for Sh20 each before they closed the day at Sh16.15. Yesterday, they climbed to Sh17.75 on the second day of trading.
The bourse was closed today because Kenya is marking 49 years of internal self-rule. The day is a national holiday commemorating the country's independence from Britain in 1963.
On Wednesday, one of Longhorn Kenya's leading shareholder, Mr F.T. Nyammo, a member of Parliament for Tetu Constituency in Central Province, rang the bell ahead of the listing of the company's shares on the alternative segment of the exchange.
According to the Business Daily, yesterday's price valued the company at Sh1.03 billion. (The exchange rate against the dollar is Sh86.83).
Longhorn has published two books by Ng'ang'a Mbugua: Mwai Kibaki, Economist for Kenya, a junior biography of Kenya's third president, and Catherine Ndereba, Marathon Queen, also a junior biography of Kenya's award-winning marathoner.
A few years ago, the company sold a significant number of its shares to Centum, formerly ICDI, making the listed investment company the biggest shareholder in the publishing firm.
Most Kenyan publishing houses, including Longhorn, depend on the school market for the bulk of their sales.
Only last month, publishing companies and book distributors said they would stop supplying books to schools unless they cleared Sh4 billion in debts.
No comments:
Post a Comment