A day after presenting its delayed full-year result and offering 310 kobo dividend per share, the board of petroleum products marketing giant- Conoil Plc, on Thursday submitted its unaudited performance for the period ended March 31, 2017, indicating a return to first quarter profit.
Sales revenue for the period improved by 29% from N19.042bn to N24.474bn, out of which cost of sales ballooned from N17.062bn to N21.155bn, resulting in gross profit of N3.318bn, representing a rise of N1.338bn or 67.6% for the period.
A breakdown of the figure shows that white products, mainly sale of premium motor spirit, diesel, aviation fuel, among others accounted for N23.465b or 96% of revenue, and N20.513bn of the cost of sales, representing 97% of total. Sale of lubricants yielded N1.obn or 4% and N641.852m of cost, while there was no activity in the cooking gas segment. The bulk of gross profit for the period also came from white products, which pooled N2.951bn, leaving N367.018m from lubricants.
Other operating income dropped to N30.9m from N46.464m; distribution expenses fell to N470.463m from N654.187m; administration expenses jumped from N1.735bn to N2.178bn, out of which N600m was provided for litigation claims, up from N225m in the corresponding period of 2016, followed by the N558.927m staff cost, up from N464.121m.
Finance cost dropped slightly from N497.058m to N445.416m, all of which was from interest on bank overdraft, which are payable on demand at the rate of 24%, up from 20% per annum in 2016. This resulted in profit before tax of N255.085m from previous first quarter’s N860.608m loss, representing a 130% improvement.
Net profit for the period was up 118% from the N943.765m loss to N173.458m, translating to 25 kobo earnings per share, as against previous first quarter’s 136 kobo loss.