Chemicals and Allied Products (CAP) last week announced its unaudited first quarter results for the period ended March 30, 2020 with the turnover and profit after tax (PAT) heading different directions. Quarterly growth of 9.08 percent in turnover which rose to N2.31 billion from N2.12 billion in corresponding period in 2019 was offset by a 8.55 fall in PAT. The profit after tax for the period was N456.3 million compared with N498.9 million in similar period in 2019.
In the past five years when CAP recorded a decline in Q1 PAT, Nigeria’s real GDP growth rate ended in the negative. That happened in the first quarter of 2016 when CAP’s Q1 PAT fell by 13.21 percent and in that quarter, the country’s real GDP growth was -0.67 percent. Also, in the first quarter of 2017, CAP’s PAT fell by 7.39 percent while Nigeria’s real GDP growth rate for that quarter was -0.91 percent.
On the contrary, in Q1 2018, CAP’s PAT rose by 18.43 percent while Nigeria’s real GDP grew by 1.95 percent and in the first quarter of 2019, the company’s PAT rose by 7.93 percent while Nigeria recorded a real GDP growth rate of 2.27 percent.
Cost of sales to revenue was 49.6 percent as at the end of Q1 2020 compared with 51.2 percent in Q1 2019. This was because the firm incurred N1.15 billion as cost of sales in the last quarter relative to N1.09 billion in corresponding quarters in 2019.
Profit margin declined to 20 percent whereas in same period in 2019, its profit margin was 24 percent.
Basic and diluted earnings per share (EPS) for the period was 67 kobo down from 71 kobo last year March.
TELIAT SULE
