By Dipo Olowookere
The value of the equities of Nigerian Breweries Plc and Nestle Nigeria Plc has been adjusted by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The share prices of the two blue-chip companies on the exchange were tinkered with by the exchange on Monday, November 23, 2020.
The reason was to reflect the value of the interim dividends to be paid by the respective boards of the publicly quoted organisations.
While the board of Nigerian Breweries proposed the payment of 25 kobo per share to shareholders, the board of Nestle Nigeria recommended the payment of N25 per unit.
The qualification date for the payment of the cash rewards for the two firms was Friday, November 20, 2020, and today, at the commencement of trading activities, the prices were adjusted for the dividends.
The equity value of Nigerian Breweries, which closed at N60.50 per unit at the last trading session, was adjusted to N60.25 per unit to reflect the deduction of the 25 kobo interim dividend, which will be paid on December 1, 2020.
As for the share price of Nestle Nigeria, which ended last Friday at N1,400 per unit, it was lowered to N1,375 per unit after the N25 was subtracted.
The NSE passed this information to stockbrokers today in a circular which partly read, “The equity prices of Nigerian Breweries Plc and Nestle Nigeria Plc were adjusted today, November 23, 2020, for dividends as recommended by their respective boards of directors.”
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.
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.
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.
Adedapo Adesanya