BUA Foods nine-month profit rises by 7%

22 Jan BUA Foods nine-month profit rises by 7%

BUA Foods recorded a 6.68 per cent increase of profit in nine months to September 2021, according to its unaudited financials, an improvement hinged on earnings growth.

Turnover stood at N79.7 billion, 6.8 per cent higher than the figure for the corresponding period of 2020.

The food processing company runs five units – sugar, edible oil, pasta, flour and pasta – all of which it combined into a single entity before it listed in Lagos this month.

But only sugar and other derivative products were noted as income sources in the earnings report posted by the Nigerian Exchange, while earnings from the other four units were unaccounted for.

“Three of our five businesses division, namely sugar, flour and pasta, are currently and fully operational and are contributing to our current revenue stream,” Acting Managing Director Ayodele Abioye told an investors and analysts call on Tuesday.

Incorporating only the figures of its sugar division into its financials made the price-to-earnings ratio of BUA Cement as high as 40 at the point of listing, when 18 billion units of its shares were admitted to the Nigerian bourse at N40 per unit.

Cost of sales rose to N57.1 billion from N53.2 billion, while administrative expenses dropped 43.1 per cent.

In January 2016, the firm’s parent company BUA Group sold its flour business to Singapore-owned Olam International in a deal worth $275 million before the company decided to look the way of flour milling again.

Profit margin, which measures how much of profit comes from revenue, stood at 20.8 per cent.

BUA Foods is majority-owned by Nigeria’s third richest man Abdul Samad Rabiu, whose wealth is currently valued at $5.5 billion, making him sixth on Forbes Africa’s billionaires’ list.