*Grows profit after tax by 196%
Mary Nnah
Shareholders of Fidson Healthcare Plc, the leading indigenous pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Nigeria, will receive dividend of 25 kobo per share.
This was unanimously approved by the shareholders at the 22nd Annual General Meeting, which was held on Wednesday July 28, 2021 at the company’s head office in Lagos Nigeria. This dividend is an improvement on the 15 kobo per share paid in the 2019 financial year.
It was also reported that the company recorded a turnover of N18.28 billion for the year ended 31st December 2020, which represents an increase of 30 per cent compared to the N14.06 billion revenue in 2019.
In the same vein, operating profit grew by 38 per cent between 2019 and 2020, while profit after tax also increased from N407.19 million in 2019 to N1.21 billion in 2020, an increase of 196 per cent.
In his remarks, the Founder and Managing Director of Fidson Healthcare Plc., Dr. Fidelis Ayebae, said that the improved performance of the organisation was largely the combined result of volume growth on key product lines and improved efficiency in her supply chain.
“As an organisation, we are committed to intensifying focus on these performance drivers going forward”, he added.
“This stellar performance has further strengthened our position as a leader in the healthcare industry.
” From inception (in 1995), we have shown commitment to offering customers the highest quality healthcare products and services in our relentless pursuit to becoming the leading pharmaceutical company in Africa”, Ayebae noted further.
One of the highlights of the event was the presentation of three newly appointed directors to shareholders.
The new directors are Dr. Vincent Ahonkhai, Mr. Ekwunife Okoli and Mr. Ola Ijimakin. While Dr. Ahonkhai and Mr. Okoli were appointed as Independent Non-Executive Directors, Mr. Ola Ijimakin was appointed Executive Director, Commercial. These new directors were unanimously elected to the board while retiring directors were also re-elected by the shareholders.
The chairman of the Board, Mr. Segun Adebanji (FCA )explained that the three highly professional and accomplished new members of the Board will contribute immensely to the quality of Board deliberations and the achievement of the company’s strategic objectives.
Shareholders also expressed their satisfaction with the performance of the company. Mr. Tunji Badmus, thanked the management of Fidson Healthcare PLC., particularly the Managing Director, Dr Fidelis Ayebae for their proactive leadership.
In his words “I will disagree to the dismay of others; last year (2019) was a good result. This is a better result we are celebrating, while the best is yet to come.”
In the same vein, Barrister Adetutu Siyanbola gave kudos to the board and the management for an outstanding result.
She further commended the organisation for the excellent performance even amid the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges.
Fidson Healthcare Plc is poised to meet the demand for pharmaceutical products across Nigeria with deliberate increase in production capacity to deliver dosage forms in key therapeutic areas.
Today, the company boasts of over 250 NAFDAC registered brands and is deliberately expanding production capacity at its current World Health Organisation Good Manufacturing Practice (WHO-CGMP) compliant facility in Sango Ota, Nigeria.
The vision for expansion has driven the organisation to invest heavily in machinery and expertise of the highest quality.
The expansion project has progressed well and led to the partnership agreement signed with GSK Nigeria for contract manufacturing.
Fidson plans to sustain its vision of running one of the best pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
