Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (Sokoto Cement), on Monday reported flat turnover and profit for the year ended December 31, 2016, following which total dividend payout slipped 71% from N439.837m in 2015 to N125.667m.
Turnover rose by N1.049bn or 8% to N14.087bn, from the previous N13.037bn, with cost of sales rising by a faster 11% from N9.185bn to N10.151bn, while gross profit could only crawl 2% up from N3.852bn to N3.936bn.
Other income rose to N138.319m from N93.953m, while selling and distribution expenses dropped slightly to N1.90bn from N1.955bn, resulting in operating profit of N1.806bn, down from N1.877bn in the corresponding period of 2015.
The Finance income stood at N132.722m from N96.615m was wiped off by finance expenses which rose from N424.257m to N198.7m, translating to a net finance expenses of N65.977m from N327.642m
Profit before tax was also flat at N1.74bn, as against the previous N1.549bn, just as after tax profit for the period stood at N1.253bn, 4% better than the preceding full year’s N1.2bn, representing Earnings Per Share of 100 kobo, up from 96 kobo.