May & Baker’s quarterly profit hits 10-year high of N655m

The earnings of May & Baker, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Nigeria, rose to the highest in at least 10 years in the first three months of 2024, according to its latest financial statements.

The firm’s after-tax profit rose to N655.4 million in Q1 from N284.4 million in the same period of last year. Its revenue also rose to N6.4 billion from N4.2 billion.

Further findings also shows that the cost of sales rose to N4.1 billion from N3.1 billion. Distribution, sales, and marketing expenses also surged to N820.3 million from N436.4 million while administrative expenses rose by 66 percent to N456.3 million from N292.7 million driven by the cost of inventories.

Inventories are the raw materials used in the production of goods for sale. In three months, May & Baker recorded a 47.8 percent increase in inventories to N9.6 billion from N6.3 billion in the previous quarter.

“May & Baker operates in Lagos and West, East and North principal geographical areas and its revenue from continuing operations from external customers by location of operations are calculated to generate the total revenue for three months,” the company said in a statement.

Revenue generated from the East increased to N1.9 billion from N1.4 billion, revenue from the West rose to N1.3 billion from N1.1 billion, revenue from Lagos rose to N2.3 billion from N1.3 billion and revenue from the North also increased to N900.7 million from N470.6 million in the first quarter of the year.

The company’s gross profit more than doubled to N2.3 billion from N1.14 billion. Interest income decreased to 42.5 million from N55.6 million while finance costs grew to N91.8 million from N78.3 million in three months.

May & Baker’s pre-tax profit surged by 130.4 percent to N963.9 million from N418.3 million. However, on the level of non-current assets incurred by the company on property, plants, and equipment, the manufacturer recorded a 14.6 percent increase to N5.5 billion from N48 billion.

“Investment on joint ventures slightly increased to N1.2 billion from N1.13 billion while intangible assets grew to N11.1 million from N8.7 million which made up a total of N6.7 billion non-current assets in three months,” the statement added.

Trade and other receivables slightly increased to N1.5 billion from N1.04 billion while cash and cash equivalent stood at N4.1 billion.