BUA Sustains Strong Performance As Profit Rises By 54% To N105.6bn

Despite the numerous political and economic headwinds impacts experienced in the year, BUA Foods Plc sustained her leadership position in the Foods with a Profit After Tax (PAT) of N105.6 billion for the nine months period ended in September 2023.The amount represents a growth of 54 per cent against N68.8 reported the same period of last year.The company revenue grew by 81 per cent y-o-y to N524.4 billion at the end of September this year from N289.8 billion reported at the corresponding period of 2022.The growth in revenue according to the company was due to a year-on-year increase of 74.2 per cent in Sugar to N315.2 billion from N180.9 billion reported in 2022, a 126 per cent increase in Flour to N149.9 billion against N66.2 billion in the preceding year and 37 per cent growth in Pasta to N58.3 billion from N42.7 billion in the comparative period of last year.According to the company result, new division Rice business contributed N995 million to the top line during the same period, adding that across the business divisions there was significant growth in volume sold impacting the overall performance as well.The key drivers include slight price adjustments to reflect high input costs, volume growth and gradual commissioning of its expansion projects.The increase in cost of sales added 74.1 per cent to N340.6 billion in the third quarter from 195.6 billion in 2022 and was driven by an increase in raw materials cost and energy cost. The high input cost environment and further devaluation of the Naira against the US Dollar weighed heavily on prices for raw materials. This resulted in higher cost of production. Gross profit increased by 95.1 per cent to N183.8 billion in nine month in year 2023 against N94.2 billion in the same period of last year even as gross profit margin appreciated by 250bps to 35.0 per cent within the reviewed period against 32.5 per cent recorded in the preceding year due to the slight selling price adjustment and new market penetration for sales within the year.

Access Holdings’ Half-Year Profit Hits N940bn

Access Holdings’ net profit for the first half of the year rose by about 52 per cent compared to the corresponding period of last year as its half-year revenue reached N900 billion mark for the first time ever. Gross earnings for the period climbed by 58.9 per cent to N940 billion, putting the financial services group on track to dwarf the N1.4 trillion reported for full year 2022, when the current year winds down. Access Bank anchored the growth on fair value and foreign exchange gain, which expanded by approximately 50 per cent to N192 billion. That followed a major revamp of the Nigerian foreign exchange system towards the end of the second quarter, which triggered a reasonable drop in the value of the naira against the dollar but opened the door for the lender to gain big after converting its financial assets denominated in the foreign currency to the naira. At 13.5 per cent, improvement in net interest income was paltry as the cash the corporation paid savers as an incentive for holding their deposits ate away at most of the interest it generated during the period, which originally had surged by as much as 63 per cent. That expense alone consumed N382.6 billion of the entire revenue.Taxable profit advanced to N167.6 billion from N97.8 billion a year earlier, while profit for the period rose 52.4 per cent to N135.4 billion. Ironically, Access Holdings’ post-tax profit lagged those of its other peers who come behind it among Nigeria’s five biggest banks, including UBA, Zenith, GTCO and FBN Holdings in indication of the group’s current inability to tap the vast potentiality of its assets to boost earnings. Its total assets stood at N20.8 trillion in June in a big leap from N15 trillion at the end of last year, following a banking acquisition in Angola and a number of similar deals in the pipeline with Standard Chartered Bank in Cameroon, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and also Angola. Access Holdings declared an interim dividend of N0.30 per share on Saturday equivalent to a payout of N10.7 billion, compared to the N0.20 per share it announced a year earlier. The stock has yielded 103 per cent since the beginning of the year.