Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc (FMN) and Northern Nigerian Flour Mills (NNFM) Plc Tuesday reported a decline in their profits for the nine months ended December 31, 2013. In its unaudited nine months performance, FMN posted a decline of 27 per cent in profit after tax (PAT) in spite of recording a growth of 17 per cent in turnover.
On the other hand, NNFM recorded a decline of 4.4 per cent in revenue and ended the period with decline of 54 per cent in PAT.
Specifically, FMN recorded a revenue of N240 billion in 2013, up from N205 billion. But PAT fell by 27 per cent from N8.167 billion to N5.932 billion, while earnings per share depreciated by 32 per cent from 319 kobo to 217 kobo.
A further analysis of FMN’s performance showed its bottomline was affected by high cost of operations. Selling and distribution costs rose 37 per cent from N2.561 billion to N3.517 billion. Financing cost also rose by 19 per cent from N8.857 billion to N10.574 billion.
For NNFM, it ended the nine months with a revenue of N8.414 billion, down from N8.805 billion. Profit before tax dipped by 73 per cent from N965 million to N251.22 million.
However, an increase in interest income and other gains from other businesses assisted in reducing the decline in PAT 54 per cent. The company recorded PAT of N231.492 million compared with N509.881 million in 2012. EPS fell from 286 kobo to 129 kobo.
Despite the decline in profit, the equity of FMN rose marginally by 1.1 per cent or N0.95 to close at N87.95 per share. NNFM shares remained static.
Meanwhile, the equities market partly reversed the gains of the previous day with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share shedding 0.73 per cent to close at 41,064.91.
Similarly, the market capitalisation shed N96 billion to close at N13.163 trillion. Twenty-five equities depreciated, compared with 32 that appreciated.
