Nigerian Breweries records 27.3% drop in profit

Nigerian Breweries Plc has reported a 27.3 per cent fall in its profit before tax for the 2016 financial year.

Its 2016 group profit before tax tumbled to N39.62bn from N54.51bn recorded a year ago.The firm’s group revenue for the 2016 financial year stood at N313.74bn compared to N293.91bn posted a year ago.

The company said it was proposing a final dividend of 258 kobo per share, in its reports filed with the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Monday.

Nigerian Breweries Plc had posted a profit after tax of N38.06bn in 2015, as against N42.52bn in 2014.

The company, in its audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2015 filed with the NSE, said its pre-tax profit fell then by 11.3 per cent to N54.51bn at the end of 2015.

Its revenue, however, rose to N293.91bn from N266bn at the end of the 2014 financial year.

The company was said to have paid a total dividend of N4.80 per ordinary share of 50k each for the 2015 financial year.

The company had said the results were impacted by reduced consumer purchasing power and increased cost of doing business mainly due to inflation and devaluation.

It said this year would see a continuation of the tough operating environment of 2015, adding that barring any unforeseen circumstance, the board of directors remained confident that with the company’s strong portfolio and its cost leadership agenda, it should be able to take advantage of any upswing in the market.

Analysts at the FBNQuest, in their comments on the Nigerian Breweries’ financial results for the fourth quarter, said the decline in the PBT in the Q4 marked the sixth consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline for the company.

They added, “Further down the profit and loss account, PAT declined by a slimmer margin of six per cent mainly because the tax expense fell by 18 per cent y-o-y, driven by a lower effective tax rate of 29.9 per cent versus 32.8 per cent in the Q4 2014.”