Amid an impressive-to-bottom line audited scorecards for the full year ended December 31, 2018, the directors of Cadbury Nigeria Plc declared a total dividend of N471.4million in 2018 (2017: N301.5million), which implies 25kobo per share (2017: 16kobo per share).
Cadbury Nigeria Plc recorded a significant surge in profit before tax (PBT) by 249 percent to N1.22 billion from N350 million recorded in 2017.
The beverage maker’s profit after tax (PAT) increased by 174 percent year on year in 2018 as shown in its full year financial report released on the Nigerian stock exchange (NSE) on Thursday.
Profit for the year ended 2018 stood at N823.08 million against N299.99 million recorded in the previous year.
This was largely driven by a 9 percent growth in revenue for the period under review to N35.97 billion from N33.07 billion in 2017.
The report at the Nigerian Stock Exchange shows, Cadbury revenue growth was driven by a significant growth in export sales revenue by 33.68 percent to N4.93 billion from N3.69 billion, although larger chunk of revenue is realised from domestic sales.
Cadbury Nigeria Plc shareholding structure shows it is owned 74.97percent by Cadbury Schweppes Overseas Limited (CSOL), while 25.03 percent is owned by a highly diversified spread of individuals and institutional shareholders.
However, domestic sales for the period grew marginally by 5.6 percent to settle at N31.03 billion from N29.38 billion in 2017.
Recorded growth in revenue in 2018 however was a slowdown by 1 percent compared to 10 percent growth recorded in 2017 from 2016. In the last five years, Cadbury had grown its revenue at an average annual growth rate of 3 percent.
Against trend witnessed so far on the NSE market with little or no positive reaction of investors to some companies stocks with impressive results, Cadbury plc as at 12.00 mid-day on Thursday recorded a 9.09 percent appreciation in share value on earnings surge.
Since 2015, Cadbury had struggled to record a PAT of N1 billion as earnings entered the million zone after company recorded a loss after tax of N296.4 million in 2016.
The company’s basic and diluted earnings per share (BPS) increased to 44kobo in 2018 financial year as against 16 in 2017.
Our analysis shows that in the last 5 years, Cadbury plc has recorded an average annual growth rate of -17 percent; hence performance in the last 5 years has not been impressive.
