Eterna Plc Shareholders Approve Dividend, Commend Board, Management

Shareholders of  Eterna Plc, a petroleum products marketing company, have hailed the performance of the company and payment of dividend for the year ended December 31, 2016. The shareholders, who spoke at the 24thannual general meeting of the company in Lagos  said Eterna Plc has been recording improvement and paying  rewarding   investors with dividends.
“The present management and board of the company have really done a good job by not only improving on the performance but have also fulfilled the promise to shareholders of consistent returns. We commend you and urge you to keep it up, while we will continue to support you,” a shareholder, Mr. Boniface Okezie said.
The Chairman of Eterna Plc, Alhaji Lamis Dikko told the shareholders that  in keeping with their promise, the board was pleased to recommend a dividend of 30 kobo per share.
“The dividend represents a 20 per cent increase from the dividend paid by our company in 2015. We continue to appreciate your trust in our ability to keep promises that we have made to you, our valued shareholders,” he said.
Dikko said the company achieved consolidated revenue of N106.9 billion in 2016, compared with 92.06 billion in 2015.
“We achieved 221 per cent increase in operating profits despite 16 per cent increase in our turnover and 178 per cent increase gross profits. This commendable performance is directly attributable to adoption of efficient processes in delivering our products and services and our ability to control costs despite the high levels of inflation prevalent in the country,” he said.
The chairman explained that profit before tax  increased by 84 per cent from N1.3 billion in 2015 to N2.4 billion in 2016, while profit after tax stood at N1.477 billion, as against N1.278 billion in 2015.
Dikko said he was pleased with the performance of the company in 2016, adding that he had no doubt that  it would perform even better in subsequent years.
According to the chairman, the company is now in the implementation stages of its Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) to take care of its risks such as fluctuation of crude oil prices, scarcity of petroleum products, financing risks, unstable market conditions, and competition from major oil companies among others.
Looking ahead, Dikko declared: “We are confident that the future ahead of us is bright. This is because we have established tested processes and procedures across our activities. We have put adequate control in place and we measure our performance constantly.”

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