Construction giant- Julius Berger Plc reported a loss before tax in its ordinary activities for the year ended December 2016, a situation that was changed by the huge N6.822bn ‘other comprehensive income’, which rose 1,103.22% above previous year’s N680.028m.
This left the company with total comprehensive income of N3.005bn, a 70.75% improvement over the N1.76bn reported for 2015, translating to Earnings Per Share of N2.28, compared to the previous N1.33 per share.
The board did not however recommend payment of a dividend for consideration at the next annual general meeting, possibly because the net profit was not recorded in its ordinary course of the financial year’s operations.
According to the result, revenue rose 3.88% to N138.993bn from N133.807bn, the bulk- N131.657bn, of which came from construction contracts, while N7.336bn was earned from rendering of services. Cost of sales dropped to N84.767bn from N91.473bn in 2015, resulting in gross profit of N54.226bn, compared with the previous N42.334bn.
Marketing expenses dropped from N75.14m to N53.327m, administrative expenses rose to N37.38bn from N30.445bn, following which operating profit rose to N16.792bn from N11.813bn.
‘Differences on translating foreign operations’ stood at N6.699bn from a N499.656m negative value, leading to N3.005bn total comprehensive income, almost double the N1.76bn in 2015.
Investment income for the period stood at N284.681m from N139.763m, ‘other gains and losses’ jumped to N1.443bn from N695.388m. Finance cost dropped to N5.784bn from N6.148bn. The finance cost resulted mainly from a N3.961bn interest on overdraft, down from N4.306bn; while interest on loan took N1.498bn as against N1.214bn; followed by other finance charges of N324.522m, down from N627.507m.
The company suffered foreign exchange acquisition loss of N14.234bn, a sub-head that never existed in the 2015 financial year, pushing the company into a loss before tax of N1.498bn from the N6.499bn profit, representing a decline of 123.05%.
Income tax expense dropped from N4.059bn to N2.318bn, bringing loss for the year to N3.816bn from the N2.44bn profit in 2015, down by 256.42%.
Retained earnings for the period dropped to N17.065bn from N22.729bn, a 24.92% slide.