May & Baker Nigeria Plc recorded significant growths in sales and profitability in 2017 as the healthcare company continued to implement its medium-term strategic plan aimed at enhancing shareholders’ value.
Highlights of the audited results showed that turnover rose by 10.39 per cent from N8.47 billion in 2016 to N9.35 billion in 2017. Gross profit grew by 29.13 per cent to N3.28 billion in 2017 as against N2.54 billion in 2016. Operating profit jumped by 51.04 per cent from N820.87 million to cross the billion naira mark to N1.24 billion in 2017. Profit before tax leapt by 75.07 per cent from N345.94 million in 2016 to N605.62 million in 2017, while net profit stood at N370.87 million in 2017 compared with net loss after tax of N41.09 million recorded in 2016.
The board of directors of the company has recommended distribution of N196 million as cash dividend for the 2017, representing a dividend per share of 20 kobo. This represents an increase of 233.3 per cent compared with six kobo paid the previous year.
The management of the company attributed the 2017 performance to the success of efforts to harness the potential of recent investments and reduce related costs.
According to it, despite the macroeconomic challenges, the company’s sales growth has continued to improve considerably above industry average, showing continuing efforts to retain and grow market share.
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of May & Baker, Mr. Nnamdi Okafor said the improvement in margin validated management’s tight cost control measures and continuing efforts to harness synergies within the group to reduce costs and improve shareholders’ value.
“Our results show our main focus of satisfying our customer and enhancing our shareholders’ value. Our steady implementation of many growth initiatives are paying off as can be seen in the latest results. We are also happy that the investing public is taking note of these improvements with the performance of our stock as one of the best-performing stocks at the market,” he said.
He noted that the recent inauguration of the board of Biovaccines Nigeria Limited has raised the prospects that the subsidiary will soon begin to impact positively on the group performance.
Okafor said with the company’s world-class manufacturing facility in Ota, Ogun State, growing into a hub of pharmaceutical manufacturing in West Africa, the imminent commencement of operations by Biovacccines Nigeria Limited will open up a new vast vista of growth for the group.
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