By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Shareholders of Honeywell Flour Mills Plc will receive the 4 kobo per share dividend proposed by the board of directors of the company.
However, this payment, to be done directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries, is subject to a withholding tax of 10 per cent.
Honeywell Flour said the qualification date for the cash reward is Wednesday, September 16, 2020, while the closure of register is from Thursday, September 17 to Wednesday, September 23, 2020.
The company has advised those who are yet to register for the e-dividend mandate form to do so via the registrar’s website. The registrar for Honeywell Flour is First Registrars & Investors Services Limited.
In the 2020 financial year Honeywell Flour, which ended on March 31, 2020, the company grew its revenue to N80.5 billion from N74.4 billion, while the gross profit increased to N13.9 billion from N11.5 billion despite a spike in the cost of sales to N66.6 billion in 2020 from N62.9 billion in 2019.
However, the selling and distribution expenses were flat at N6.0 billion over the two comparative periods, same as the general and administrative expenses, which remained unchanged at N2.5 billion, but the other operating income dropped to N116.2 million from N751.5 million.
The operating profit moved up to N5.5 billion from N3.8 billion in 12 months, while the finance costs increased to N4.2 billion from N3.2 billion, making the company to close the financial year with a profit before tax of N1.3 billion compared with N575.1 million a year earlier.
Also, the profit after tax grew to N650.5 million from N35.7 million in the previous financial year.
The shareholders’ fund stood at N57.3 million in 2020, higher than N56.6 million in 2019, while the total assets and liabilities increased to N142.3 billion and N85.0 billion respectively from N137.5 billion and N80.9 billion.
The company, in the financial statements, said it reduced its borrowings to N26.8 billion from N33.7 billion in one year, while the retained earnings increased to N14.0 billion from N13.3 billion.
