Notore Chemical Industries Nigeria Plc reported revenue of N16.5billion and an operating profit of N3.343billion for the nine months (Q3) ended June 30, 2019.
The company’s Q3 unaudited financial statement for the period ended June 30, 2019 was released to the investing public at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday July 29.
In the review Q3 period, revenue of the leading vertically integrated agro-allied and chemicals group shows a decline of 19.9 percent compared to N20.6billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2018.
Notore said its revenue decline resulted from a plant downtime during the period under review “as a result of activities for the Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) programme, which are expected to be completed by first quarter (Q1) 2020.”
The company expects that after the completion of the TAM, the plant will operate at its nameplate capacity.
The results at the Nigerian Stock Exchange show that during the nine months under review, Notore recorded cost of sale of N13.234billion, as against N12.422 billion in 2018. It ended with an operating profit of N3.343 billion, compared with N3.750billion in 2018.
However, financing cost rose to N10.446billion, up from N7.689billion in 2018, which made the company post a loss after tax of N7.103 billion as against N3.939billion in 2018.
According to Notore, the Nigerian fertiliser demand is quite robust and is expected to continue to grow because of the federal government’s efforts to increase both the supply and demand for fertilisers, through provision of subsidies, grants and loans and through recent government initiatives such as the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI).
The company explained that the domestic fertilizer market is yet to reach its full potential as the consumption of fertilizer per hectare of arable land in Nigeria is below 10kg compared to the 200kg recommended by Food & Agriculture Organisation.
“Furthermore, the demand for urea and compound fertilizers, such as NPK, from the West African markets and Sahel African states is also quite significant. Notore sold all the urea that it produced (156,615MT) during the period under review,” it added.
Looking ahead, Notore said the current federal government policies in the fertilizer space are quite favourable to its business.
“Additionally, on-going market demand for NPK and NPK specialty will boost the business’ revenues when it’s newly installed and commissioned 2,000 MTD NPK blending plant begins production.
Consequently, Notore has begun gradual efforts to further diversify its revenue streams by selling specifically produced Notore seeds to farmers. To enhance profitability, Notore is working on financial initiatives to reduce its finance cost considerably,” it stated.
