The board of Honeywell Flour Mills dimmed hope that its shareholders should look forward any reward by the time its full year ended March 31, 2019 is released close in June, judging by its score-card for the nine-month in December 31, 2018.
Not only was revenue flat for the period, just as cost of sale was kept in check, profit after tax fell by 94.86% to just N143m, compared to the N2.782bn reported in the corresponding period of 2017. Earnings Per Share paled at 1.80 kobo, from 35.08 kobo.
Details of the result showed that revenue stood at N55.076bn from N54.645bn; cost of sales crawled from N42.006bn to N45.641bn; resulting in gross profit of N9.435bn, down by 25.35% from N12.639bn in 2017.
Other income stood at N173M from N145m; selling and administrative expenses rose from N5.726bn to N6.787bn; leaving operating profit at just N2.821bn, 60.03% down from the N7.058bn reported in the corresponding nine months of 2017. With no finance income, finance cost/net finance expenses dropped to N2.648bn, a reduction by 26.05% from N3.581bn.
Profit before tax therefore stood at N173m, 95.02% down from the previous N3.477bn; just as the 95.68% drop in tax expense from N695m to N30m; left net profit at N143m.