Japaul Oil and Maritime Services ended 2019 in profitability following the N43.8 billion it made outside its main operations and regarded as other income last year. The one-off income came in through asset disposal. After deducting the necessary expenses, Japual Oil earned N40 billion as profit after tax in the last financial year as against a loss after tax of N6.59 billion in 2018.
Regarding how the income was made, Japual Oil and Maritime stated it was due to the disposal of assets.
“During the year, land and buildings, marine and survey equipment pledged as collateral securities for various loans obtained by the company from Access Bank have been forcefully taken over to settle all obligations to the bank based on duly executed terms of settlement before the Federal High Court directive on suit no: FHC/L/CS/1222/2018”, Japual Oil said.
For the entire year, revenue from the main operations was N725.5 million, a far cry from N936.3 million it earned as revenue in 2018. Disaggregating the 2019 revenue based on business segments, dredging services generated N85.9 million; offshore services earned the firm N512.9 million while quarry services generated N126.68 million.
Compared with 2018, the highest decline in revenue came from dredging services where the company only made N85.9 million in 2019 as against N368.9 million in 2018. The other two segments witnessed some improvements because in 2018 offshore services generated N458.1 million while quarry services generated N109.2 million compared with the aforementioned segments’ revenues in 2019.
Direct cost remained high at N1.67 billion in 2019, but 29 percent lower than N1.96 billion incurred in 2018. The company’s income tax expense skyrocketed by 972 percent from N10.4 million in 2018 to N111.5 million in 2019. Available records show that the company has been having a serious legal battle with Access Bank through facilities extended to it which resulted in different court cases between the two parties.
Aside Access Bank, in February 2018, Japaul Oil announced it was entering into a $350 million equity financing with Milost Global Inc. However, due to the media spotlight on the transaction, by May of the same year, the deal was cancelled in a non-prejudicial manner.
Japual Oil and Maritime Services was one of the top trades on Wednesday June 3 2020. Investors traded 23.1 million shares worth N5.9million that day. Its share price has gained 40 percent year to date as it presently trades at N0.28 per share.
