Conoil Plc yesterday reported a better-than-expected results for the year ended December 31, 2015, recording a growth of 176 per cent in profit and 200 per cent rise in dividend.
Despite the challenging operating environment, Conoil Plc recorded a profit before tax of N3.448 billion in 2015, up by 125 per cent fromN1.532 billion in 2014. The petroleum products marketing firm, rode on the back of cost containment strategy to record a higher growth in profit after tax to N2.307 billion, which is 176 per cent above the N834 million in 2014.
The company’s earnings per share also rose by 177 per cent to 333 kobo in 2015 from 120 kobo in 2014.
Following this impressive performance, the company has proposed a dividend of N2.08 billion, translating to 300 kobo per share compared with the 100 kobo paid in 2014.
Conoil attributed the improved performance to efficient management of resources, effective cost control policy, as well as reaping from its huge investment in the expansion and upgrade of its facilities.
“For us, the downstream sector remains fundamentally attractive and viable today and the future. With our clarity of direction and focus, our company’s long-term success is assured. We will sustain this improved performance and vigorously pursue our aspiration to remain the nation’s leading petroleum products marketer and one of the most profitable quoted companies,” the company said.
The Chairman of Conoil, Mike Adenuga Jr, had last year assured shareholders that notwithstanding the tough challenges in the country and indeed in the downstream petroleum sector, the company would explore to the fullest, new opportunities that abound in the industry to its advantage and deliver higher returns.
Adenuga also assured investors of the company’s commitment to cost cutting measures in its operations, vast improvement in the quality of its products and services with a strong bottom-line as its focus.
“These measures have positively contributed to our successful outing to reward our loyal shareholders,” he said.
The market reacted positively to the results as the share price of Conoil Plc rose by 4.9 per cent to lead price gainers for the day, closing at N21.59 per share.
