Financial perspective respondents did agree that

Financial perspective
Respondents did agree that there had been growth in the business value of the study
firms. This response yielded a mean of 4.20. As highlighted in Chapter two of this
study, proper accounting and financial reporting is one of the critical and important
responsibilities of management, especially in public-quoted companies. This
perspective approach focused the researcher on the financial performance of the study
firms as it was part of the main research question. Archival sources showed that

84
indeed there was good performance and growth in the overall business value of the
study firms as shown in Table 14 below.
Table 14: Vision Group’s financial results 2006/2007 – 2009/2010
Vision Group 2006/2007 2007/2008 2008/2009 2009/2010
Shs ‘000 Shs ‘000 Shs ‘000 Shs ‘000
Sales Revenue 32,633,131 39,061,869 43,200,812 49,947,578
Net Profit/(Loss) 3,368,276 4,720,643 2,182,847 734,786
Total Assets 18,307,057 23,209,320 55,186,141 59,762,245
Source: Vision Group Annual report, 2007 – 2010.
From table 14 above, Vision Group’s sales revenue has been growing over the years
from 32.6billion in 2006/2007 to 49.9billion in 2009/2010, registering a 53.1%
growth over the 4 years of study. The researcher observed from secondary sources
that this good performance was experienced in all the business platforms; circulation,
commercial printing, advertising among others.
Net Profit grew by 40.15% for the two years 2006/2007 and 2007/2008, only to slump
by 53.76% in the FY 2008/2009. For the 4 years under study, 2006/2007 –
2009/2010, the company registered an overall decrease in net profit of 78.19%. This
decrease was however explained in the Group’s annual report 2009/2010 as coming
from a number of factors that increased the cost of sales notably; increased inputs to
meet the growth in volume of business, depreciation of the shilling against the dollar
(most of the inputs are imported in foreign currency while earnings are in shillings)
among others. There were also notable increases in administration costs arising out of
the need to finance operations of new investments in television and radio, fuel costs
and depreciation. The researcher also found out that a disposal of the printing press at

85
a price lower than the book value was also a significant contributor to the reduction in
the profitability of Vision Group.
Indeed on close examination of the Vision Group FY 2009/2010 accounts, the
researcher confirmed that; cost of sales grew by 18.5% from 30.1bn to 35.6bn and
administration by 14.2% from 8.8bn to 10.1bn. Specific increments were in
depreciation at 65.4%, motor vehicle running costs at 88.1%, grants and donations at
170%, Insurance at 76.9%, TV content at 100+% (new investment) and security at
97.9%. Notably, all these increments were higher as compared to the growth in sales
revenue of 15.6% in the FY 2009/2010. The researcher also confirmed a disposal of
PPE in the FY 2009/2010 worth 3.3bn that registered a loss on disposal of 1.4bn.
From the secondary sources seen by the researcher, Vision Group posted impressive
growth in its Total Assets registering a combined 226.4% over the years. The
researcher through examination of the FY 2008/2009 accounts found out that, overall
business value grew to a tune of 27.2billion as a result of inclusion of the rights issue