By Peter Egwuatu

Shareholders of May & Baker Nigeria Plc have unanimously approved the five kobo per share dividend proposed by its Board of Directors for the financial year ended December 31, 2014, just as the company returned to profitability. The shareholders at the 64thAnnual General Meeting of the company held in Lagos commended the company’s performance for the year under review, in view of the harsh operating environment it operated upon and for returning back to paying dividend.

Nigerian Stock Exchange

In his remarks at the meeting, Chairman, May & Baker Nigeria Plc, Lt. General Theophilus Danjuma (Rtd) said “Despite the harsh operating environment, our company posted an impressive result for the year 2014. The challenges associated with the building and depreciation of the Pharmacentre are gradually being taken care of and our company has bounced back to profitability.”

According to him “Result for the year 2014 shows that the company recorded a 990 per cent growth in profit. From a pre tax loss position of N11.4 million in 2013, the group recorded a pre tax profit of N101.1 million in 2014. Similarly, after tax profit rose by 161 per cent from a negative of N103 million in 2013 to a positive of N63 million in 2014. This was achieved on a group turnover of N7 billion, against N6.3 billion in 2013, a revenue growth of 10.2 per cent.”

The May & Baker Chairman explained to shareholders that the company was unable to raise additional capital last year when approval was given by them due to unfavourable market and economic conditions. In his words: “It is my utmost hope that we will be able to bring in equity within the next one year as it is evident that recapitalizing the company has become an urgent imperative.

Our financing cost has remained above N600 million for the second year running. This would have flowed into profits for shareholders had we operated more on own equity than borrowed funds. On future outlook, he said “The future outlook of our company remains bright and the signs are already manifesting with return to profitability and dividend payment.

I am optimistic that as soon as we are able to recapitalise the business we shall take down the high financing cost which is currently taking substantial earnings off the company. This will put us in a strong position to fully leverage our installed capacity, aggressively promote our existing brands, launch new products in our pipeline and deliver better profits.”