By Dipo Olowookere
The board of Nigerian Breweries Plc has proposed the payment of 25 kobo as interim dividend for the nine months ended September 30, 2020.
The cash reward, according to the board, shareholders whose names appear in the register of members as at the close of business on November 20, 2020, and have completed the e-dividend registration and mandated the registrar, First Registrars and Investor Services Limited, to pay their dividends directly into their bank accounts.
In a notice, the brewer said the register of members will be closed from November 23 to 27, 2020, and on December 1, 2020, the dividend will be paid electronically to beneficiaries.
In the first nine months of this year, Nigerian Breweries recorded a slight decline in revenue and this was mainly caused by the lockdown in the country in the second quarter of the year to control the spread of COVID-19, a global health pandemic still ravaging Europe and America but has subsided in Africa.
In the financial statements of the company analysed by Business Post, the net turnover dropped to N234.0 billion from N235.7 billion and in the third quarter alone, the revenue rose to N82.2 billion from N65.5 billion in the same period of last year.
Most economic activities resumed in the third quarter of the year in Nigeria after the government shut down most businesses in late March, especially in the sectors where products of Nigerian Breweries and others are consumed like event centres, hotels, bars and others.
The results further showed that the cost of sales in the first nine months of the year jumped to N144.1 billion from N139.5 billion, while the gross profit slipped to N90.0 billion from N96.2 billion.
Marketing and distribution costs stood at N52.2 billion versus N57.5 billion, while the administrative expenses closed in Q3 at N15.9 billion in contrast to N14.3 billion.
While the finance costs went up to N11.7 billion from N8.2 billion, the finance income dropped to N216.5 million from N228.6 million, leaving the net finance costs bleeding by N11.5 billion like in the corresponding period of last year, though lower at N8.0 billion.
Though in the third quarter alone, Nigerian Breweries returned to profitability but in the first nine months of the year, the profit was lower than the same period of last year.
The pre-tax profit for Q3 was N2.6 billion as against the N2.2 billion loss in Q3 2019, while the nine months PBT dropped to N11.0 billion from N17.2 billion.
In Q3 2020, the firm recorded a post-tax profit of N1.4 billion as against a post-tax loss of N1.0 billion in Q3 2019, while the net profit for nine months stood at N6.9 billion versus N12.3 billion in the comparative period.
The earnings per share (EPS) ended the period under consideration at 89 kobo compared with N1.53 it ended a year ago.
Adedapo Adesanya