Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc its audited result for the year ended December 31, 2017 gave investors reason to cheer as it did not grow turnover by a significant 35%, the company return to full year profit, despite 49% rise in cost of sales for the period. The bulk of the turnover and profit came from the group’s Transcorp power Generation Company (Ughelli).
According to the result, revenue climbed to N80.284bn from N59.424bn; while cost of sales rose from N29.258bn in the corresponding period of 2016 to N43.86bn, leaving gross profit at N36.424bn from N30.165bn.
A breakdown of the turnover showed that while the power business contributed N66.441bn, from the previous N44.067bn; it was followed by hospitality with N13.843bn, representing a drop from N15.341bn; while the corporate centre contributed N5.121bn, much more than the N2.537bn of 2016. The oil and gas and agro-allied segments were however absent from the table of income centres.
Other income improved by 45.21% to N690.696m from N475.652m, just as administrative expenses increased to N11.75bn from N10.376bn, even as other gains- net rose to N668.943m from N451.361m, bringing operating profit to N26.031bn, as against N20.716bn in 2016.
Finance income rose to N498.259m from N363.016m; just as finance cost increased to N9.67bn from N8.303bn; Foreign exchange loss on financing activities dropped by 75.65% to N4.554bn from N18.703bn.
Also, finance cost- net dropped to N13.726bn from N26.644bn, as the power segment accounted for N12.192bn finance cost, followed by the corporate centre’s N3.016bn; this resulted in profit before tax of N12.305bn, up from the previous loss of N5.928bn. Again, the power business yielded N10.838bn PBT, up from N8.083bn; corporate centre, N2.567bn, as against the loss of N449.502m; while hospitality contributed N3.604bn, as against N5.239bn; just as intersegment elimination amounted to N5.088bn from a loss of N1.847bn in 2016. Profit after tax stood at N10.607bn from the prior N1.126bn loss. Total comprehensive profit for the period stood at N13.406bn, from a loss of N579.519m in prior year representing Earnings Per Share of 11.7 kobo, as against the N2.29 kobo loss in prior year, out of which the directors are offering two kobo dividends per share.
Qualification date for the dividend, which amounts to N812.959m, is April 17, while the register of members for the purpose would close between April 18 and 24. However, shareholders are expected to approve the dividend at the annual general meeting on April 30, 2018, after which payment would be made on May 2.