The board of petroleum products marketing giant- Total Nigeria, on Wednesday night posted its audited result for the year ended December 31, 2016 on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) portal, indicating that profit before and after tax grew at a faster pace than sales revenue.
Consequently, the directors are recommending a dividend of N5.771bn, which translates to N17 per share for the year, up from the previous N4.753bn or N14 in the 2015 financial year. The company had earlier paid a N10 interim dividend per share of this amount during the financial year, following which the board at its March 10, 2017 meeting recommended a final dividend of N7, from N12 each in 2015. The final dividend, subject to approval of shareholders at the annual general meeting slated for June 9, 2017, will however be paid on June 12, to those who are shareholders as of April 14, 2017, following which the register of members will be closed from April 17 to 21.
Meanwhile, revenue from sales rose by 40% from N208.027bn to N290.952bn, while cost of sales jumped by N58.576bn or 31.96% to N241.85bn from N183.274bn, leaving gross profit of N49.101bn, compared to N24.753bn, representing 98.36% rise.
Other income increased to N1.449bn from N1.204bn, while other expenses stood at N9.056bn, of which N7.432bn represented net foreign exchange loss, and N1.624bn, the net loss on foreign exchange forward contract. Selling and distribution costs increased slightly to N4.715bn from the previous N4.669bn; administrative expenses was N15.847bn from N15.033bn. These left operating profit of N20.931bn, as against the previous N6.255bn.
Profit before tax jumped by 213% to N20.353bn, as against previous year’s N6.495bn; income tax was N5.555bn from N2.448bn; in spite of which After tax profit improved to N14.797bn, a 266% increase from the N4.047bn reported in 2016, representing earnings per share of N43.58, up from N11.92 in 2015.
The dividend per share translated to dividend cover (times) of 2.56 from 0.85.
Investors have also continued to note the companies robust performance, which has reasonably priced into the shares, which closed at N299, more than double N147.01 per share price in the corresponding period of 2015.