**To Pay N4.8b Interim Dividend
By Dipo Olowookere
The Board of Directors of Nigerian Breweries Plc has approved an interim dividend of N4.8 billion, amounting to 60 kobo per ordinary share of 50 kobo in the share capital of the company for the period ended September 30, 2018.
According to the brewery giant, the interim dividend is subject to the deduction of withholding tax and payable on Monday, December 10, 2018 to all shareholders registered in the books of the firm at close of business on Thursday, November 22, 2018.
Nigerian Breweries, which released its financial scorecard for the period under review yesterday to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), recorded a profit after tax of N14.7 billion, while results from operating activities stood at N27.7 billion over the same period.
An analysis of the unaudited and provisional results shows that profit after tax dipped by 38.4 percent from the N23.9 billion recorded over the same period in the preceding year, while results from operating activities dropped by 34.4 percent from the N42.3 billion recorded in the same period last year.
Also, profit before tax also dipped by 34.7 percent from N34.4 billion recorded in 2017 to N22.4 billion in the period under review.
Commenting on the results, the Company Secretary/Legal Adviser, Mr Uaboi Agbebaku, said “the new excise duty regime which came into effect in June and the consequent effect of it adversely impacted the third quarter results.”
He added that the company also undertook a rightsizing exercise which resulted in a substantial one-off cost during the quarter.
