Companies

Longhorn Publishers buys out Malkiat Singh

longhorn

Chairman Longhorn Kenya Francis Nyammo (centre) rings the bell after the listing of the company at the NSE. Photo/File

Longhorn Publishers has bought the works of iconic publisher Malkiat Singh as it searches for new revenue streams to reverse a dip in sales.

The Nairobi bourse-listed publisher said it concluded the deal last month and will add the 36 revision books to its stable.

Mr Singh has over the past 30 years evolved into a recognised brand in Kenya’s textbook publishing with revisions being his strength besides the more than 20 titles approved by the State under the Free Primary Education textbook (FPE) project.

Longhorn declined to disclose the cost of the buyout that will restrict Mr Singh from publishing with rival book firms over the next decade.

The deal does not include the purchase of Mr Singh’s publishing house, Dhillon Publishers, and comes at a time that Longhorn is racing to reverse the dip in sales and profit it reported last year.

The firm swung into a loss of Sh25.9 million in the year to last June compared to a profit of Sh213 million in 2011 after sales dipped 30 per cent to Sh775.9 million.

“Malkiat Singh is a big brand and revision books are the most popular in Kenya especially at the primary school level,” Longhorn managing director Musyoki Muli told the Business Daily in an interview Tuesday.

“We are on a growth path and we are always looking out for opportunities to expand our product base.”

Mr Muli said the publisher targets to generate Sh200 million annually or more than 20 per cent of its year sales from the Malkiat Singh series—which will be marketed in regional markets of Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi, South Sudan, Tanzania and Ghana.

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Longhorn said the Malkiat Singh titles are being revamped with the re-launch set for mid-next month.

Pupils who went to school at the inception of the 8-4-4 system of education will recall that one of the most important revision tools was the Malkiat Singh KCPE encyclopaedia.

Then, the big yellow volume was a must-have for every pupil who had hopes of doing well in the examination.

At that time, textbook publishing was the sole preserve of government parastatals— Kenya Literature Bureau and Jomo Kenyatta Foundation, but the liberalisation of the sector paved the way for private investors to seek a piece of the lucrative market.

Publishers such as Longhorn say government accounts for 80 per cent of textbook purchases.

Mr Singh, 75, came to Kenya in 1969, nine years after completing his degree Political Science from Punjab University in native India.

He is married to a Kenyan, Mohinder Dhillon, whose second name formed the brand name of his publishing house.

In Kenya, Mr Singh started off by being a teacher before stepping into book publishing in 1970 with his first title dubbed English Language Practice for Schools. The book was published by Longman UK while he was still a tutor at Nairobi Technical Institute.

Longman quit the Kenyan market in the 1990s and a section of its owners established Longhorn Kenya. 

Longman books, however, made a return to the local market in early 2000s.

The buyout of Malkiat Singh marks Longhorn’s the third acquisition of a rival publisher in recent years.

Longhorn in 2007 bought out Sasa Sema Publications for Sh22 million, acquiring 28 titles made up of Swahili comic books and junior biographies of African historical figures.

It currently has 66 English and Swahili titles under the Sasa Sema imprint which specialises in non-text book materials such as dictionaries, kamusi, novels, plays, biographies and general knowledge books.

“The strategy was to diversify our product range to cater for the general audience,” said Mr Muli.

In January 2012, Longhorn completed a Sh12.5 million takeover of Dar-es-Salaam based Delah Publishers to grow its revenues in Tanzania where it has a market share of 10 per cent.

Longhorn, Kenya’s first listed book publisher, began trading on Kenya’s Alternative Investment Market Segment last May at Sh14. 

The share has gained 18 per cent over the past three months to the current price of Sh14.50.

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