HENATES

Time was when construction giant, Julius Berger PLC groaned under the weight of outstanding monies due from customers for work already done, now it looks like the table turned in the company's favour at least in 2015 financial year. Or so indicates the audited reports for the year released recently to the stock market. However, the tide did not turn in favour profit recorded. By 2015 close Julius Berger had in its kitty N106971.4m  as amount due to customers on contracts, up 14.2% on 2014's N93690.3m. This came in very handy not only in helping Julius Berger reduce short term borrowings by 28.7% to N24807.9m from N34809.1m but more importantly it helped ensure closing working capital of N48049.5m compared to only N18002.1m in 2014. It probably also helped too to keep growth in cost of funds to 2.8% from N5981.5m to N6148.8m. In spite of this though, Julius Berger still had a rough year because its core and total revenue dropped by 32% and 32.6% respectively with total...

For Courtville Business Solutions PLC (CBS) the lone guarantee of avoiding a repeat of tough 2015 year in the current financial year is a rethink of internal solutions. According to the 2015 audited results released recently, something has to be done to cage growth in finance costs, cost of solutions offered clients and operations cost. They combined to  drive CBS profit before tax down by 59.6% to N184.4m from N457.0m after the company recorded 10% increase in core revenue to N1486m from N1350.9m. The top punch was from growth in interest paid closing the year at N155.1m representing 176% rise on 2014's N56.2m. It could have even been worse though because forward looking ensured CBS purchased more plant and equipment within the year with closing value rising by 13.4% to N1521.1m from N1341.2m even as external borrowing was reduced by 16.4% to N367.8m from N440.4m. This was made possible at no higher cost of funds because N179.7m was in escrow as tax deducted at source, p...

During March 2016, the manufacturing sector in Nigeria recorded a very slow growth, according to Central Bank of Nigeria Purchasing Managers Index for the month released recently. The composite PMI increased very marginally from 45.5 in February 2016 to 45.9. In the composite basket were 12 indices for different activities crucial to manufacturing. These are production level, new orders, supply delivery time, employment level, raw materials and work in progress inventories and new export orders. Other indices in the composite basket were output prices, input prices, quantity of purchase, business outstanding and finished goods. The survey usually conducted by the Survey management division of the CBN statistics department involved administration and retrieval of 1564 out of 1850 questionnaires on purchasing executives across 13 locations in two States per each geopolitical zone of the country including Abuja. The main good news in the March survey report that pushed up the co...

NAHCO Aviation Handling Company PLC put up a good fight in 2015 financial year but it was not good enough to stop the slight weakening of its bottom line. According to the audited results released not too long ago, NAHCO was man enough to hold down its overhead costs in 2015 while increasing both core and total revenue marginally. Core revenue growth had come to only 4.63% to N8122.5m from N8498.6m while total income rose by 4.81% to N8713.6m from N8313.5m. To generate this marginal increase NAHCO drove down selling and distribution costs by 5.94% to N137.8m from N146.5m and administration expense by 6.53% to N2257.7m from N2415.4m. The only cost unit it could not cage was direct costs which ended the year 11.8% up at N5270.7m compared to N4713.3m previously. But net finance charges ended less menacing as it came to N250.7m compared to N279.8m in 2014. The reward for these efforts was the 3.55% increase in profit before tax recorded from N769.5m to N796.8m. Of course, thi...

By growing operating profit by 27.3% from only 17.1% increase in total income, Livestock Feeds PLC, was not doing badly but the knock out punch from finance charges reversed this into year end profit drop. According to the audited figures released recently, Livestock Feeds grew its operating profit from N609.9m to N776.7m by recording 16.6% rise in cost of sales from N6924.7m to N8071.6m. More importantly, by decreasing marketing and distribution costs by 6.67% to N191.6m from N205.3m and by holding administration expense growth to only 9.85% to N281m from N255.8m. All these did not quite bother the increase in total income growth to N9366.3m from N7998.5m as income from other sources 340.4% increase to N357.6m and finance income rise to N45.5m from N2.79m boosted the 13.3% increase in core revenue to N8963.3m from N7914.5m. Meaning that Livestock Feeds was heading for year end profit growth but for the 147.9% increase in finance expenses from N210.5m to N521.9m that derailed t...

For Mobil oil PLC, 2015 did not quite make out to be the tough year on the lips of all even though core income decreased by 19.3%. According to the year's audited results released recently, the goodness in the year stemmed from far higher drops in three major costs: cost of sale, other operating expenses and finance charges. Mobil oil had recorded revenue drop from N79583.7m to N64220.9m but direct cost of producing the goods sold dropped at a faster rate by 22.7% from N68846.4m to N53229.8m. However, the decline in other operating costs at 84.1%, was more remarkable. It ended the year at N23.4m compared to N147.5m for .2014. Then there was  also the relief got as finance charges went down by 33.9% to N123.1m from N186.1m. However, selling and distribution and administration expenses refused to bow. In particular, administration expenses increased by 49.6% to N3166.1m from N2116.6m while selling and distribution costs rose by 5.57% to N5517.6m from N5226.5m. The forces ...

Paints and Coatings PLC was virtually overwhelmed by cost pressure in 2015 and so, couldn't but end the year on weakened knees. That is, according to figures released recently. First, core business revenue refused to grow. It decreased by 6.19% to N3090.1m from N3294.1% leaving non-core revenue to reduce that to 5.94% drop in total revenue from N3299.6m to N3103.5m. Then cost of sale showed its own sign of being the boss by dropping by only 4.74% to N2161.7m. That was even better than the very marginal 1.19% decrease in administration expenses to N779.2m from N788.6m recorded. Finally, along the same way, finance cost rose by 64% to N15.8m from N9.63m. It could have been worse for Paints & Coatings but for solid  percentage increases recorded in income from other sources and interest received. Income from other sources more than doubled to N13.2m from N5.38m while interest received increased to N280,000 from N66,000. The one cost unit that more than responded to c...