11 Plc (formerly Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc) has approved for payment N2.6 billion as dividend translating to 800 kobo per share for its teeming shareholders for the financial year ended 31 December 2017.
Ramesh Kansagra, chairman of the Company said “I thank you all for recognizing and acknowledging our efforts in 2017, the positive year we saw a result of huge effort towards enhancing sales and marketing to bring further awareness to our products and services as far as the public is concerned”
The company’s profit dropped marginally by 1.4 percent from N15.5 billion it posted in 2016 to N15.3 billion in 2017. However, financial sales revenue grew significantly to N125.26 billion in 2017, up by 33 percent from the N94.11 billion recorded in 2016.
Shareholders lauded the company’s giant strides but expressed concern over the marginal decline in profit, a matter which Ramesh ascribed to the hard hurdles of operating in the industry.
He said, “as regards reduction in profitability, I will like distinguish shareholders to be aware that the cost of oil product business in Nigeria is essentially government regulated”
“We all were expecting the government to deregulate but instead of deregulating, not only have they continued to regulate, they set the price at which we can sell our products and also the price at which we buy”
“This is where the problem is. The government has not very largely allowed private enterprise to thrive in this industry; private enterprises have very little money to make in the sale of oil products”
On his part, the managing director of the company, Adetunji Oyebanji said “we as a company will prefer a deregulated environment because that augurs better for competition, innovation and investments in the industry. When this is not the case, investments are stifled and that is why we will prefer a deregulated environment”
“Ultimately, the government will be the one to decided the state of the industry and this will be with regards to political considerations but as an economic entity, we at 11 PLC will prefer a deregulated environment where business can thrive”
“Even though investment levels have been ramped up significantly, we are laying foundations in all aspects of business for a greater tomorrow. We are currently upgrading our PMS storage capacity with additional tankage of 15,000 MT.”
“A new ATK tank with a 20,000 MT capacity is also being constructed. We are installing three additional pipelines for PMS, ATK and LPG respectively. We have expanded our lubricant warehouse storage capacity by 780 square meters” Oyebanji concluded.
The company urged shareholders to put measures in place to ensure the of transfer rights to their next of kin or relations as this will curb rampant unclaimed dividend.
The company’s name was changed to 11 PLC on the 8th of August last year but is still trading with the Mobil brand as the distributor of Mobil products in Nigeria and has signed agreements with Exxon Mobil to cover both lubricant and fuel sales in the country.
