Nestlé’s register closure begins today

Nestle Nigeria Plc has announced that its register for interim dividend payment will close on Monday 27th November to 1st December, 2017.

This will be followed by payment of the proposed interim dividend on 11th December, to members of the company whose names appear in the register by the date of its closure.

Nestle Nigeria proposed interim dividend of 15.00 Kobo per share, of which qualification date is 24th November, 2017.

Nestle Nigeria reported Q3 2017 results, which showed that sales grew by 29 per cent y/y to N63.3bn, while PBT also rose by 117 per cent y/y. PAT to N10.0bn, compared with a loss after tax of –N51million in the corresponding period of 2016.

During the quarter, Nestle introduced a new product, Milo ready-to-drink, into the market. Similar to Q2, Q3 profitability was boosted by a gross margin expansion of 433bps y/y to 43.5%, which primarily, could be attributed to relatively cheaper access to fx for imports.

The big downside to this set of numbers was an fx loss of –N6.0bn in Q3 (-N11.2bn in 9M 2017), which compares with an fx-related loss of –N6.3bn in Q3 2016 (-N19.4bn in 9M 2016).

The fx loss was, however, not sufficient enough to offset gains coming through from topline growth and the gross margin expansion. Sales for both Nestle’s Food and Beverage categories were up by around 28% y/y to N39.1bn and N24.2bn respectively.

Sequentially, while sales were up 4.2% q/q, PBT came in flattish, mainly on the back of the reported fx loss of –N6.0bn, which compares with –N4.1bn in Q2. PAT declined -22% q/q, due to a comparatively higher tax expense in Q3.

Bonny Amadi