Julius Berger has got off to a good start this year, with the construction company’s share price rising 15.92 percent since the turn of the New Year.
That makes it the best performing listed company year to date, according to data compiled by BusinessDay.
Julius Berger shares rose 0.2 percent Monday to close at N23.30 per unit.
The share rally comes on the back of the construction company’s improving financial health and rising optimism for future earnings on the back of the government’s increased focus on infrastructure works from roads to bridges.
The company erased losses in the first nine months of 2018, posting profit after tax of N3.4 billion compared to a loss of N349 million in the same period of 2017, according to its unaudited financial statement.
Analysis of the company’s financials show a significant reduction in foreign exchange acquisition loss, which fell 34 folds to N91 million as at September 2018 from N3.1 billion a year ago.
Investment income of N1.087 billion also impacted the company’s bottom line, given that it made no extra cash in investment income the year before.
Martin Brack, the company’s finance director, said in an interview last year that the company was “cautiously optimistic as we look to a brighter future.”
“Supported by our strong positioning and project backlog as well as some major positive economic indicators, inflation rates are stabilizing, thus allowing the company to work in a more stable economic environment again,” Brack said.
Nigeria expanded 1.8 percent in the third quarter of 2018, as the economy struggles to find its feet after a scathing recession in 2016.
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