By Dipo Olowookere
Barely 24 hours after the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) warned the investing community to be cautious of Thomas Wyatt Nigeria Plc stocks, the board of the company, which manufactures popular exercise books and other stationery, has released the third quarter results, which got the firm into trouble in the first place.
An analysis of the financial statements for the third quarter ended December 31, 2019, showed that the firm generated a revenue of N59.0 million, better than N45.3 million turnover recorded in the third quarter of 2018.
However, the generated revenue was swallowed by a rise in the cost of sales; N58.7 million in Q3 2019 versus N50.2 million in Q3 2018. This was largely due to increase in the purchase of raw materials, which gulped N44.1 million in contrast to N36.5million in the corresponding period of 2018 and rise in outsource/design, which took N1.4 million against N499,980 in Q3 of 2018.
Though the gross profit was better in the period under review; N307,137 compared with -N4.9 million in the third quarter of the previous year, the other income slightly dropped to N225,593 from N253,144. The income came mainly from sale of waster papers, while rental income and sundry income brought nothing to the company in the period under consideration.
Business Post reports that the administrative expenses of the firm rose to N38.0 million from N24.7 million largely due to increase in salaries and wages (N19.4 million vs N13.9 million), generator rental charges of N5.2 million and diesel oil costs of N5.2 million vs N3.5 million, while the distribution expenses jumped to N4.5 million from N2.5 million, with carriage and sale expenses gulping N1.7 million versus N550,900 in Q3 2018.
Thomas Wyatt said it had a loss before tax of N42.0 million in Q3 2019 versus N36.3 million in Q3 2018 and a loss after tax of N42.3 million in contrast to N36.7 million in the same period of the previous financial year. This left its earnings per share (EPS) at -19 kobo versus -17 kobo.
The company’s board also said it has a long term loan of N265.0 million payable to Leadway Assurance, while it has a retained loss of N666.9 million and a negative total equity of N385.4 million.
