By Bamidele Famoofo
Shareholders of Conoil Plc, one of Nigeria’s leading oil marketers, will get a dividend of 200 kobo per share for the financial year ended December 31, 2017, a shortfall of 35.5 percent compared to 310kobo  per share in 2016.
The shortfall in dividend payout as proposed by the company was due to a drop in profit after tax by 44.4 percent from N2.84billlion in the preceding audited financial year to N1.58billion as at December 31, 2017.
The drop in profit before tax was higher at 46.2 percent to N2.30billion compared to N4.28billion in 2016 while Retained Earnings also dropped to N13.72billion from N14.29billion in 2016, representing a 4.0 percent decline.
The management of Conoil obviously was not able to make the company’s asset sweat as required in the review financial year as Net Asset per Share dropped by 3.1 percent from  2,661kobo per share to 2,578 per share in 2017.
While Shareholders’ Funds also dropped from N18.47billion to N17.87billion as at December 31, 2017, Earnings per Share (EPS), stood at 227kobo per share as against 407kobo per share in 2016.
