Hopes of perhaps a miracle that could see book publishers- Academy Press Plc paying a dividend at the end of its current financial year on March 31, 2017, finally faded, following the submission of its performance score-card for the third quarter ended December 31, 2016, showing that sales revenue fell by 11%, just as loss before an after tax more than doubled for the period.
It may not be out of place to expect that the shareholders should be urged to reinvest by way of an offer for subscription or a rights issue to get Academy Press back on track.
The result showed a revenue of N1.388 billion, as against the previous N1.542 billion; out of which cost of sales dropped marginally to N928.353 million, from N1.031 billion; resulting in gross profit of N460.34 million, from N510.753 million.
Administrative expenses however rose to N591.566 million from N412.454 million; while distribution expenses fell to N34.907 million from N40.927 million, resulting in operating loss of N148.428 million, from a profit of N51.345 million.
Whereas there was no finance income for the period under review, finance expenses and cost came to N135.13 million, from N190.505 million.
while loss before and after tax increased to N283.558 million from N139.16 million, an increase of about 104%, translating to 47 kobo loss per share, from 23 kobo in the 2015 third quarter.