Caption: From left, Finance Director, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Ben Wessels Boer; Non-Executive Director, Adeyinka Aroyewun; Managing Director of the company, Hans Essaadi; Chairman, Juliet Anammah; Company Secretary/Legal Director, Uaboi Agbebaku; Non-Executive Directors, Roland Pirmez and Olufunmilayo Akande, during the 79th Annual General Meeting of the company in Lagos recently.
Shareholders of Nigerian Breweries Plc commended the efforts of the Board and Management that helped return the company to profitability despite challenges confronting the Nigerian economy.
Reacting to the scorecard presented at the meeting, Ahmed Batula, a shareholder, praised the board for steering the company through a turbulent period and helping to return the business to profitability.
The board, he continued, has demonstrated immense capacity by ensuring that both local and foreign debts were reduced significantly from the capital that was raised from the rights issue.
Also reacting, another shareholder, Robert Ibekwe, stressed the need for the company’s management and board to continue managing the business efficiently such that it can quickly return to the era of dividend payment to its shareholders.
Siyanbola Adetutu, also a shareholder, gave kudos to the company for ensuring gender diversity at both the board and management levels.
Speaking at the 79th Annual General Meeting which held virtually on Wednesday April 16, 2025, the newly appointed board chairperson, Mrs. Juliet Anammah, expressed satisfaction that the decisive actions taken by the company to deal with economic and business realities in 2024 were already yielding positive results.
Anammah thanked the shareholders for their patience, trust and unwavering support during the challenging period, noting that although the directors were unable to recommend dividend payment in the year under review, the net profitability recorded in the last quarter of the year represents a step in the right direction and the result of the successful execution of the business recovery plan in 2024.
This, he assured, has placed the company on the path that will result in the resumption of dividend payment in the not too distant future.
For her, “with the success of the rights issue coupled with the return to profitability in the last quarter of 2024, we are convinced that Nigerian Breweries is on the right path to improving its financial position and ensuring sustainable value creation for shareholders and other stakeholders.”
While expressing optimism about improvement in consumer spend in 2025, she noted that the company was ready to consolidate its leadership in the market by taking advantage of any market growth notwithstanding the aggressive competitive environment that has characterised the commercial beverage sector for some years now.
