Longhorn at the NSE

 

On May 30, book publishing company Longhorn Publishers listed 58.5 million shares at the Nairobi Shares Exchange (NSE) at a price of Kshs. 14 per share, becoming the 59th  company on the exchange.  While they are said to be the first publisher on the exchange, they are not the first new media /creative company at the NSE.

Longhorn is 35% owned by  Centum Investments and the current NSE MD, Peter Mwangi, mentioned how he had sparked the process of leading Longhorn to list when he was the MD of Centum (formerly ICDCI)  as he gad seen that the company which had good growth, business plans, and management could end up as a company that could list at the exchange.

Longhorn is mainly a school books publisher with school publishing interests in Kenya (government is the largest book buyer) , and has  subsidiaries in Uganda and Tanzania (never been profitable), and their titles are now distributed in Rwanda, Malawi, and the Chairman also some titles are now sold via amazon kindle.

Centum and the Longhorn Chairman, Francis Nyammo in total own about 79% of the company and have undertaken not to reduce their combined shareholding to below 51% for the next two years.