International Breweries Plc, a leading player in the Nigeria beer industry made a loss of N2.2 billion in the first quarter of 2018 from the profit of N1.4 billion made in the same period of last year.
This is despite having a revenue increase of 175.5 percent to N26 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2018 from N9.4 billion in the same period of 2017, according to their financial statements released on Thursday.
International Breweries are the makers of popular beer and non-alcoholic malt drinks brands such as Trophy, Hero and Hero Malt etc.
Analysts have attributed the drop to the liabilities of the two companies, Intafact Beverages and Pabod Breweries that merged with the International Breweries on October, 2017.
“When you look at last year before the merger, what you see is one company but now you are looking at a group of consolidated companies,” Johnson Chukwu, CEO of Lagos-based financial advisory firm, Cowry Assets, said on phone.
Shareholders of International Breweries Plc, Intafact Beverages Limited and Pabod Breweries Limited have approved the merger of the three companies.
The approvals were granted during separate court ordered meetings of each of the merging entities, held on Wednesday and Thursday October 18 and 19, 2017.
