By Adedapo Adesanya
Dangote Sugar Refinery recorded a drop in profit in the first half of this year, according to figures from the company’s financial statements for the period ended ended June 30, 2019, which were analysed by Business Post.
The sugar refining firm, which makes well-known products, recorded a profit after tax of N11.0 billion at the half year of 2019, lower than the N12.7 billion PAT recorded in HY 2018. Likewise, the profit before tax dropped to N17.0 billion from N19.9 billion.
This occurred as the company’s generated revenue from January to June this year went down to N80.4 billion from N84.1 billion made in HY 2018. This was mainly affected by the decline in the sale of its 50kg sugar to companies needing it for production, which constitutes to 30 percent of the sales.
According to the financial statements, the sum of N75.7 billion was made from the sale of the 50kg sugar in H1 2019 versus N79.5 billion in H1 2018, while revenue from the sale of sugar to the retail market rose to 2.30 billion from N2.28 billion.
In the period under review, the cost of sales slowed to N59.2 billion from N60.8 billion in the same period of last year, while the amount raked from other income such as rental income, sale of scrap, and insurance claim went down in H1 2019 to N76.7 million from N307.8 million.
Dangote Sugar said in its books that it cut down its selling and distribution expenses to N397.3 million from N752.5 million recorded in HY 2018, while the administrative expenses leaped to N3.51 billion from N3.48 billion spent in the previous period.
Investment income also dropped for the company as it made N588.2 million in HY 2019 compared with N1.7 billion registered in HY 2018, while the operating profit decreased to N17.3 billion from N19.4 billion.
Dipo Olowookere