Kenya's Nation Media says first-half pretax up 18 pct on rising sales

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's Nation Media Group said first-half pretax profit rose 18 percent, helped by increased newspaper sales, steady imported raw material costs and the shilling exchange rate. Nation, east Africa's largest media group, publishes the Daily Nation newspaper and also owns and operates newspapers, television and radio stations in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The company's pretax profit for the six months through June rose to 1.62 billion shillings on a 10 percent jump in turnover to 6.43 billion shillings, it said in a statement on Friday, citing cost controls and growth in all its units. Earnings per share rose 24 percent to 6.02 shillings, the company said. It said it would pay an interim dividend of 2.50 shillings per share, unchanged from a year ago. Rival Standard Group, which also runs a daily newspaper, television and radio stations, achieved a 109 percent rise in pretax profit to 223.3 million shillings in the first half.