Kenya’s prolonged economic upheavals are taking a toll on businesses with the number of listed companies having issued profit warnings now at nine.

Crown Paints and WPP Scangroup are the latest companies listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) to issue profit warnings, signalling to investors that earnings will plummet by at least 25%.

Other companies that have issued alert warnings since March are Longhorn Publishers, Sasini, Car & General, Nation Media Group, Centum Investment Company, Unga Group and Kenya Power (KPLC).

The companies have attributed the anticipated decline in earnings to a tough operating environment with higher costs for doing business.

Crown Paints attributed to reduced profit to the increased cost of raw materials, transport costs, and volatility in foreign exchange rates, Business Daily reports.

The media outlet quoted WPP Scangroup as stating that it is undertaking a restructuring that will involve sacking some staff, with severance costs of KES178mn ($1.1mn) in operating and administrative expenses.

“The reason for the lower expected earnings in 2023 is due to many reasons including the continued subdued economic environments in our markets of operations that have led to cautious spending by our clients on advertising, marketing and communications,” WPP Scangroup said.

The company reported a net profit of KES 75.2mn ($491,150) in 2022 from a loss of KES 37.9mn ($247,534) registered in 2021 and expects at most a profit of KES 56.4mn ($368,383) in the year ending December 2023.