Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The newest member of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Briclinks Africa Plc, is considering exploring new business opportunities.
This it hopes will make it have better earnings and return to profitability.
On Friday, February 5, 2021, Briclinks was admitted to the growth board of the exchange through a listing by introduction. The firm quoted its 10 million ordinary shares of N1.00 each at N6.26 per unit on the platform.
At the ceremony to mark its entry into the space, the chief executive of Briclinks, Mr Mohammed Buhari, who controls 50 per cent stake of the firm, explained that, “We have dreamt about this day and worked towards it with effervescence right from the moment we decided to be listed on the NSE about 17 months ago.”
He further said, “We have from this process emerged as a better entity well-tuned to corporate best practices and culture.”
Mr Buhari also stated that joining the NSE “will avail us the opportunity to build not just a company but an institution forged in the furnace of integrity, and excellence.”
While thanking the company’s financial advisers to the listing, Afrinvest Securities, and the NSE team for their untiring support and guidance in making this day a reality, he said Briclinks would aim to “become a force on a regional scale [as] being on the exchange is a testimony of strength, sustainability and worthy service.”
This week, the board of the organisation released the financial statements of the firm for the period ended December 31, 2019, and from the analysis of Business Post, the bottom line was not impressive.
Briclinks said it recorded a pre-tax and post-tax loss of N7.3 million respectively, though the figures for the preceding year were not included in the results to indicate if it was an improvement or not.
The firm said in the year under consideration, it generated a revenue of N165.6 million and this came mainly from the sale of bandwidths to its customers.
It further said the cost of sales gulped N140.2 million in the year, majorly from marketing expenses, interconnect charge, bandwidth charge and licence/permit fees.
As a result, the company was left with a gross profit of N25.4 million. This could not sustain the operating costs of N32.7 million incurred, which led to the loss before tax of N7.3 million the firm recorded in the year.
As analysis of the operating expenses showed that Briclinks paid N20.8 million as amortisation charge, N5 million for rent, N1.6 million for telecommunication and N496,800 as bank charges, while salaries and wages gulped N295,000 in the year.
