….Won’t pay dividend
By Chinwendu Obienyi
The board of 7UP Bottling Company has blamed Nigeria’s harsh situation for its inability to pay dividend to shareholders from its operations as it performed poorly, having recorded N10.7 billion loss before tax for the financial year ended March 2017. The company also stated that due to the loss, it won’t declare dividend to its shareholders for the first time in over five years.
According to the company, “the depreciation of the naira, ensuing scarcity and foreign exchange crisis that was prevalent most of last year led to an increase in finance and raw materials cost. Cost of sale went up from N60.6 billion in 2016 to N90.5 billion in 2017, gross profit fell from N25 billion in 2016 to N12.9 in 2017 and we recorded a loss after tax of N10.7 billion this year compared to a profit after tax of N3.34 billion in 2016.”
The company, however, said it recorded gross revenue of N108.2 billion, adding that it apparently decided that it will not be paying dividends because it had reported a loss after tax.
“Selling and distribution increased to N13.9 billion in 2017 from N11.8 billion and our revenue increased from N85.6 billion in 2016 to N108.2 billion in 2017. This incidentally is the first time in about five years that Seven Up (7UP) has gone a financial year without paying dividends,” the company said.