As investors and traders anxiously await the audited result of Oando Plc for the full-year ended December 31, 2017, now undergoing review by the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC), the company’s management on Friday presented its score-card for the first quarter to March 31, 2018. Highlights of the report was the flattish revenue income, while there were conscious efforts to either cut expenses marginally, following which profit after tax soared, whetting investors’ appetite.
Revenue for the period improved to N150.546bn, up by N12.274bn or 8.87% from the N138.272bn reported in the corresponding period of the 2017Q1’ while cost of sales dropped y N2.247bn or 1.79% to N122.605bn from N124.962bn; resulting in gross profit of N27.941bn, an improvement of N14.531bn or 108.35% over the N7.623bn of prior Q1.
Other operating income of Oando dropped to N802.279m from N7.499bn, representing 89.3% slide within the period; administrative expenses was flat at N13.865bn from N13.286bn; resulting in N14.888bn operating profit, representing a growth of N7.265bn or 95.3% as against the N7.623bn of 2017.
Finance costs was N10.642bn from N10.664bn; finance income increased marginally to N2.399bn from N2.269bn; resulting in net finance cost of N8.242bn from N8.394bn.
Share of N139.915m share of loss of associate rose to N139.915m from N124.557m; while profit before tax from continuing operations came to N6.508bn, from the loss of N647.034m in prior Q1. Income tax expense for the year stood at N2.314bn, from a credit of N1.218bn; leaving net profit at N4.191bn from the previous N571.04m. The net profit of Oando Plc therefore translated to Earnings Per Share of 18 kobo, up from a four kobo loss.
A breakdown of the revenue contributions by operating segments of Oando showed that supply and trading activities yielded N108.478bn, down from N115.634bn in the prior Q1; followed by N41.956bn from exploration and production, double the previous N22.63bn.
The bulk of net profit however came from exploration and products, which pooled N9.468bn, up from N7.15bn; while supply and trading recorded a N681.218m loss for the period; as against N584.227m loss in 2017; just as “corporate and other” segment lost N4.595bn from N4.943bn.

Pix Caption: Oando Plc Group Managing Director/Chief Executive, Jubril Adewale Tinubu, with Oscar Onyema, CEO of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), when Oando Plc’s chief executive sounded the closing gong on the NSE in May 11, 2017. They were surrounded by management of both organisations