By Adedapo Adesanya
University Press Plc has again recorded another loss in the first half of this year, having suffered a similar fate in the first half of last year, indicating that things are still not in the right shape in the company.
The publishing house, which released its financial statements recently, recorded a higher comprehensive loss after tax, which stood at N144.5 million as at June 30, 2019 as against a N41 million loss recorded as at June 30, 2018. This indicated that the loss was expanded by 248.2 percent year-on-year.
The company’s financial statements also showed that the company registered a lower revenue of N95.9 million in H1 2019 compared with N375.3 million made in H1 2018.
This may have been influenced by the poor reading culture in the country as well as the embracing of digital means to make books available to consumers, which some observers say has continued to threaten the existence of University Press.
University Press notably saw a reduction in the cost of sales in this half year, in the sum of N41.3 million as against 2018’s N219.5 million.
In the same trend, the company’s marketing and distribution expenses were lower compared with the numbers recorded in H1 2018 with this year’s totalling N102.7 million in contrast to N104.6 million.
Furthermore, there was a higher administrative expense of N109.5 million incurred by the book publishing company in H1 2019 compared with N103.0 million in H1 of the previous year.
The company’s finance income saw an increase of N12.3 million during the period under review against N9.4 million realized in H1 2018.