Directors of Lafarge Africa Plc, on Wednesday presented its audited result for the full-year ended December 31, 2016, which showed that revenue fell by N47.52bn or 17.78%, following which the company slipped into loss before tax of N22.818bn, as against N29.286bn profit in the corresponding period of 2015. The situation changed with the income tax credit of N39.717bn, compared with N2.123bn, resulting in profit after tax of N16.898bn, translating to Earnings Per Share of 315 kobo, down from previous year’s N27.162bn or 574 kobo EPS.
According to the result, sales revenue dropped to N219.714bn from N267.234bn, while cost of sales also dropped by N5.536bn or 2.99% to N179.052bn from N184.588bn, resulting to a N41.983bn or 50.79% in gross profit, from N82.645bn to N40.661bn.
Selling and marketing expenses fell to N3.928bn from N4.482bn; administrative expenses also dropped to N26.806bn from N27.026bn, just as other operating income jumped to N3.842bn to N1.701bn, a gain that was wiped away by the jump in other operating expenses by N9.95bn or 67.24%, resulting in operating loss of N10.978bn, compared with a profit of N38.04bn.
Finance income soared to N3.675bn from N1.95bn, while finance cost rose to N15.504bn, compared with N10.701bn, raising before tax to N22.818bn from a profit before tax of N29.286bn.
Further analysis of the result showed that the bulk of the revenue- N152.415bn was from its Nigerian operation, while South Africa contributed N67.198bn, just as the entire ‘other operating income’ from N3.842bn. Also, N24.925bn of the ‘other operating expenses’ came from Nigeria also, following which N11.738bn of the operating loss came from Nigeria.
On product segmentation, the lion’s share of revenue came from cement from which the company earned N176.285bn, followed by ‘aggregates and concrete’ garnered N41.783bn, down from N43.68bn, and other products raked in N3.626bn from N3.639bn.