Inside the NSE: WPP Scangroup (SCAN)

WPP Scangroup is the only marketing and advertising group listed on the NSE, and the home of Ogilvy Africa.

It grew from a one-man agency into the region’s biggest marketing firm, and at its 2015 peak the shares traded near KSh50. .

History and Founding Story

Scangroup traces its roots to 1982, when Bharat Thakrar started a small independent advertising agency in Nairobi called Scanad.

Thakrar, who later said he came into advertising by accident, spent nearly four decades building it.

The holding company, Scangroup Limited, was incorporated in January 1999 under the name Media Initiative East Africa Limited, and it listed on the Nairobi exchange in August 2006 through an IPO that raised KSh94 million.

The British communications group WPP, the world’s biggest advertising holding company, became a partner within months of the listing.

WPP’s own history of the relationship says the partnership began in 2006 with a minority stake, while Business Daily dates WPP’s purchase of a 27.5% stake for KSh1.3 billion to 2008, so the exact dates are worth checking.

In 2013, WPP lifted its holding to 50.1% by paying KSh1.8 billion in cash and handing over its interests in nine subsidiaries to the Kenyan company.

In 2015, the group changed its name to WPP Scangroup. In 2018, WPP raised its stake to about 56.25% in an all stock deal worth KSh926.6 million, with Scangroup issuing 53.2 million shares to a WPP entity, Russell Square Holdings, in return for a 70% stake in a Mauritian market research business.

The founder’s position then unravelled. On 18 February 2021, the board suspended Thakrar and the chief financial officer over allegations of gross misconduct, at a time when WPP was said to be enforcing its ethical code. Thakrar resigned shortly afterwards.

Business Daily described it as the first time the chief executive of an NSE listed company had been suspended or sacked publicly for ethical misconduct. The share price at the time was KSh5.94.

The story has not ended. In May 2026, a group of minority shareholders led by Thakrar and his wife, holding 13.59% between them, formally requested a general meeting to remove the board, arguing that the shares had fallen about 62% since his exit and that cumulative losses between 2021 and 2025 totalled about KSh3.1 billion.

Core Business Lines / Revenue Streams

WPP Scangroup describes itself as the largest marketing and communications group in sub-Saharan Africa, operating a multi-agency model.

Advertising and creative: Ogilvy Africa, Grey, J. Walter Thompson, and the legacy Scanad agencies, producing campaigns for clients such as telecoms, brewers, banks, and consumer goods firms.
Media planning and buying: Buying advertising space and time for clients across print, broadcast, outdoor, and digital.
Public relations and corporate communications: Hill & Knowlton and related agencies.
Market research and digital: Research, digital, and experiential businesses within the group.
Regional footprint: Majority owned offices in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, and minority owned operations in several other African countries.

A large share of revenue comes from a small number of big clients, and that concentration has been the group’s undoing recently.

Competitive Position in Its Industry

WPP Scangroup is the largest agency group in the region by reputation, and as part of WPP it can pitch for global accounts that smaller Kenyan agencies cannot. But the business is vulnerable to client losses and staff departures.

In May 2025 it lost the Airtel Africa account, which Ogilvy Africa had held for fifteen years and which contributed nearly 20% of group revenue.

The account moved to Publicis Groupe Africa and to The Partnership, an agency founded by three former Scangroup executives. Industry sources cited by HapaKenya say at least seven agencies are now led by former Scangroup staff who took clients with them.

The numbers are poor. For the year to December 2025, revenue fell 16.3%, gross profit fell about 28%, the operating loss was KSh928 million, and the net loss widened 40.8% to KSh713.7 million (loss per share of KSh1.61, against KSh1.17 in 2024).

It was the group’s fourth profit warning in five years. The first half of 2026 was no better: gross profit fell 33.7% to KSh539.7 million, the loss before tax rose 31% to KSh227.5 million, and the net loss was KSh254 million, up from KSh208.3 million. Cash fell to KSh503.3 million, roughly half the level a year earlier.

Management says it is cutting costs and investing in data, technology, and AI enabled services. Minority investors also question a KSh1.2 billion loan the company made to a WPP group entity at 5% interest, which they say is below market rates.

Ownership Structure

WPP controls the company, with the founder’s camp the main minority bloc. Sources differ on the exact numbers.

WPP plc (through Cavendish Square Holding and Russell Square Holdings): Between about 53.3% and 56.3%. Simply Wall St (November 2025) counts 230.2 million shares, or 53.3%, with Cavendish holding 176.9 million shares and Russell Square about 53.3 million. Business Daily reported 56.26% at the 2026 shareholder meeting.
Thakrar family and associates: Bharat and Sadhna Thakrar and related holders together hold about 13.59%, according to the requisition letter. Thakrar’s own stake has fallen from 28.53% at its peak to about 5.6% individually.
A holder listed as “Standard Chartered PLC”: 12% (51.8 million shares). The number closely matches the Thakrar couple’s 2014 holding of 51.8 million shares, so it may be a custodian account, and I’d verify it against the register before quoting it.
Other holders: Smaller individuals, including former director Carl Ogola (about 1.4%), and the general public.

Why It’s Listed on the NSE Specifically

Scangroup listed in 2006 so that a founder led agency could raise money to buy other agencies in the region, and so that early backers had a market for their shares.

The IPO itself raised only KSh94 million, but the listing gave the company a currency, its own shares, for acquisitions.

That currency became the route by which WPP took control: the 2013 and 2018 deals both paid in shares, so WPP’s stake rose without the founder or the public getting a conventional takeover offer.

The listing has since served as the stage for the fight over control: the dissident shareholders used its rules to force a meeting, and the share price and disclosures give outsiders a running scorecard.

Current Stock Price

The share has fallen from about KSh50 in March 2015 and KSh5.94 in February 2021 to a little over KSh2. It was KSh2.24 on 6 May 2026, and it closed at KSh2.06 after the shareholder meeting that rejected the board’s removal, down 2.8% on the day.

Trading is thin: indicative liquidity over the twelve months to early June 2026 was about US$547,000 (around KSh70 million), and the stock can swing sharply on news.

Share prices move daily. For a live quote, check the NSE’s official market data page or a licensed brokerage platform before making any decisions.

How to Buy WPP Scangroup Shares

You don’t need to be in Kenya to buy SCAN shares; it can be bought locally or from abroad:

Open a CDS (Central Depository System) account. This is Kenya’s electronic share registry account, required to hold any NSE listed stock. It’s opened through a licensed stockbroker or investment bank.
Choose a licensed NSE stockbroker or investment bank. Examples include firms like Standard Investment Bank, AIB-AXYS Africa, Genghis Capital, and Faida Investment Bank. A full list of licensed trading participants is available on the NSE website.
Fund your trading account via bank transfer, mobile money (M-Pesa is widely supported), or card, depending on the broker.
Place an order for SCAN through the broker’s trading platform, app, or by instructing your broker directly. Because the stock trades thinly, limit orders are advisable.
For non resident and diaspora investors, several online platforms (such as mystocks.africa and similar cross border brokerages) let you open an account remotely, fund it in USD or your local currency, and buy NSE listed shares like SCAN without needing an in country presence, though you should confirm licensing and custody arrangements before using any platform.
Hold and track. Shares are held electronically in your CDS account. Do not expect dividend income: no dividend was declared for 2024 or 2025, and none was declared at the first half of 2026. The board says it wants to preserve cash.

This profile is for informational and editorial purposes and is not investment advice. Stock prices, especially, change constantly, so always verify current figures with the NSE or a licensed broker before making any investment decision. Other figures reflect the most recent publicly reported data as of 2026 and may change with new financial disclosures. WPP Scangroup is loss making and in a dispute between its parent and a minority group, so check for the latest announcements.