Courteville Business Solutions plc last week held its ‘Facts behind the figures’ at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) where the management told stockbrokers, investment analysts, investors and other market stakeholders about their journey so far and the future plans of the company listed under the ICT sector of the NSE.
Courteville Business Solutions is aiming for a profit after tax (PAT) of N500 million for the 2015 financial year; the target represents a 57 percent growth on the N317.6 million profit the group made in the 2014 financial year.
The company also recorded 5 percent growth in turnover to N1.35 billion in 2014 from 2013 level of N1.29 billion. Earnings per share (EPS) moved up by 3 percent to 8.94 kobo in 2014 financial year from 8.67 kobo in 2013.
Net profit margin remained relatively stable at 38 percent in 2014 from 35 percent in 2013. Profit before tax (PBT) grew by 13 percent to N457 million in 2014 from N403 million in 2013.
The company’s turnover rose by 14.48 percent from first-quarter (Q1) 2014 level of N313 million to N358.35 million in the first-quarter (Q1) of 2015. Profit before tax (PBT) declined by 6.41 percent to N105.5 million from N112.74 million in Q1’14. Shareholders fund rose by 13.08 percent to N3.28 billion from N2.9 billion.
The company has consistently declared yearly dividend since listing on the NSE. Among other services, Courteville Business Solutions is the country partner for Rackspace to provide dedicated and shared hosting. The company is also a business process re-engineering consultant, and IT infrastructure and process audit and advisory.
At the ‘Facts behind the figures,’ Adebola Akindele, group managing director, Courteville Business Solutions, said the company was diversifying its operations to ensure that it did not only hit its top-to-bottomline financial target, it would also achieve greater but sustained growth.
As part of its future plans aimed at enhancing shareholder value, Courteville Business Solutions targets construction of the AutoReg Business platform into a dominant franchise in sub-Saharan Africa; full diversification into and enhancement of e-business solution development and services; continue the accelerated expansion into the Africana and Caribbean market; expansion of AutoReg MVAD franchise into other states in Nigeria; extending its coverage to Kenya and Senegal; enhancement of the existing Egole Shopping platform, and creation of universal e-payment solutions.
As part of the diversification, Akindele said the group would embark on the construction of its AutoReg business platform into a dominant franchise in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to Akindele, between the start of 2013 and now, the Courteville Business Solutions group had designed and developed an obligatory biometric healthcare insurance card project for the Republic of Guinea, among other things.
Other projects, according to him, include the deployment of a national insurance industry database for the Insurance Council of Zimbabwe, design and development of a web-based and mobile-response market hub and financial management portal for Small and Medium Enterprises.
Some of the company’s footprints include: 100 percent accuracy of data capture; processes 40,000 transactions daily; grows client’s revenue by 250 percent within 12 months; employs over 10,000 operatives; created the largest data capture platform in sub-Saharan Africa, and consistent 99.8 percent web activity uptime.
Iheanyi Nwachukwu
