The board of Champion Breweries Plc, on Monday presented its 2016 audited results, highlights of which included that profit after tax grow at a significantly faster pace than revenue from sales.
To comply with the free float requirement of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the company, whose majority owners include: Raysun Nigeria Limited, 61%; Assets Management Nominee, 12%; and Akwa Ibom State Government, 10%; leaving only 17% for other shareholders, as against the minimum 20% regulatory requirement, said it has initiated necessary steps to meet the threshold.
Despite this growth, the directors did not recommend a dividend from the N530.389m net profit, which rose by N453.389m or 587.56% from N77.14m reported in the corresponding period of 2015. The net profit represented Earnings Per Share of 7 kobo, as against the previous 1 kobo.
According to the result released on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), sales revenue rose by N363.098m or 10.36% to N3.864bn, from N3.501bn, out of which N2.797bn went into cost of sales, from N2.502bn, leaving a gross profit of N1.067bn, up from N999.698m.
Other income during the period dropped to N32.328m from N52.271m, while selling and distribution expenses rose from n255.913m to N321.59m, added to the N160.157m spent on administrative expenses, a drop from previous year’s N589.287m.
Operating profit rose to N617.634m from N206.769m.
With no finance cost, net finance income rose to N63.65m from N41.674m, resulting in profit before tax of N637.3m from N210.179m, while after tax from rose from N77.14m to N530.389m.
The five-year results showed that this is the second year of profit by the company, which in 2013 recorded a net loss of N1.178bn, just as sales income grew from N1.785bn in 2012 to N3.864bn in 2016.