Goddy Egene
Fidson Healthcare Plc has recorded a profit after tax (PAT) of N312 million for the year ended December 31, 2019. According to the interim results, made available yesterday, the company posted a revenue of N14.062 billion in 2019, compared with N16.229 billion in 2018.
Cost of sale was reduced from N9.910 billion to N8.195 billion, while administrative expenses fell from N2.614 billion to N2.580 billion. Similarly, selling and distribution expenses were reduced from N1.905 billion to N1.446 billion, making the company to end with an operating profit of N2.118 billion, up from N2.048 billion.
A 10 per cent decline in cost of finance from N1.925 billion to N1.716 billion, enhanced its bottom-line as the company recorded PAT of N312 million in 2019, compared with a loss of N97.44 million in 2018.
The company’s performance reflected the impact of the equity injection the company witnessed towards the end of last year that helped to reduce the financing cost.
Fidson Healthcare Plc last year successfully raised N2.345 billion equity capital from existing shareholders to boost its operations. The company made a rights issue of 750 million shares of 50 kobo at N4.00 on the basis of one new share for every per share to raise N3 billion.
However, it ended up with N2.345 billion, translating to 78.18 per cent of the issue. According to the company, the new capital would be used to boost working capital that had been negatively impacted by the depreciation of Naira.
The company had also explained that its new factory that came on stream at the tail end of 2016 needed additional capital to realise the full potential and utilise the new factory to full capacity.
