GSK Recommends Dividend as Post-Tax Profit Jumps to N771.2m

By Dipo Olowookere

The board of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Nigeria Plc has recommended the payment of a dividend of 55 Kobo to shareholders of the company for the 2022 financial year.

Analysis of its audited financial statements for the period under review disclosed that the cash reward would be paid to qualified investors on May 25, 2023.

In the year, the firm generated N25.4 billion as revenue, higher than the N22.5 billion generated in the previous accounting year, indicating an improvement of 12.9 per cent, while the gross profit slightly moved up to N6.9 billion from N6.2 billion due to the 13.5 per cent jump in the cost of sales to N18.5 billion from N16.3 billion.

It was observed that the selling and distribution costs were marginally pruned to N3.4 billion last year from N3.5 billion in the preceding year, but the administrative expenses went up to N2.6 billion from N1.8 billion, leaving the operating profit at N935.2 million versus N837.7 million in FY 2021.

Business Post reports that the higher interest income on short-term investments raised the finance income of GSK to N319.5 million from N93.5 million, as the profit before tax closed at N1.2 billion as of December 31, 2022, in contrast to N945.8 million as of December 31, 2021, while the post-tax profit closed at N771.2 million compared with the previous year’s N658.8 million.

Meanwhile, GSK has continued to outsource its production to a third party, following the decision of the management to sell off the company’s Agbara factory in Ogun State.

In 2019, the management of GSK announced that it would shut down the facility by the third quarter of 2021 as it would source a “suitable third party local manufacturer” to handle some of its productions as part of the “restructuring of GSK’s current operating model to better serve the Nigerian patients and consumers.”