Flour Mills announces 5.2% decline in revenue

In spite of the challenging macro-economic and tough business environment, strong competition and unrest in the North East which impacted negatively on the volume of its bag manufacturing business, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc posted a revenue of N308.8 billion, a decline of 5.2 per cent over N325.79 billion of last year.

The audited report and accounts for the financial year ended March 31, 2015 indicated that the group profit before tax was also down by 6.1 per cent to N7.73 billion in 2014 from N8.2 billion posted in 2015 while Profit After Tax grew by to N8.47 billion from N5.4 billion, representing a growth of 58 per cent.

The major impetus that leveraged profit after tax growth is N738.3 million tax refunds in 2015 as against N2.86 billion recorded in income tax expenses.

The impressive performance in profit aided 79.8 per cent growth in basic earnings per share that moved from N1.93 to N3.47.

Group total assets gained 15 per cent from N299.2 billion in 2014 to N342.8 billion in 2015.

Hitherto, the shareholders of Flour Mills of Nigeria have endorsed plan by the company to raise N40 billion through a rights issue.

The Chairman of the company, John Coumantaros, explained at an extraordinary general meeting in Lagos,  that the fund would help the company reduce its debt burden, interest charges as well as augment its working capital.

Besides, he explained that with the proceeds of the rights issue, Flour Mills would be strongly positioned to pursue high growth business opportunities without straining its liquidity.

He said the company currently employs 6,000 workers and has created a lot of employment opportunities for Nigerians.

“The foreign exchange market is getting tough and we have to find ways to manufacture locally. We are undertaking a very big investment programme,” he added.