Kayode Tokede
UAC Nigeria Plc has listed additional 44,835,076 units stocks on the trading platform of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX).
The regulatory notice confirmed that the shares were from the scrip dividend election scheme issued to shareholders of the company.
It was gathered that the equities were listed on the bourse on Friday, increasing the total issued and fully paid up shares of UAC Nigeria to 2,926,131,656 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each from the previous 2,881,296,580 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each.
The listing of 44,835,076 units brings UAC Nigeria’s market capitalisation to N32.19billion as of September 2, 2022.
“Trading licence holders are hereby notified that additional 44,835,076 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each of UAC of Nigeria Plc were on Friday, September 2, 2022, listed on the daily official list of the NGX.
“The additional shares listed on NGX arose from UAC of Nigeria’s scrip dividend election scheme.
“With this listing of the additional 44,835,076 ordinary shares, the total issued and fully paid up shares of UAC of Nigeria has now increased from 2,881,296,580 to 2,926,131,656 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each,” the disclosure stated.
At the closing of the stock market on Friday, the share price of UACN closed flat at N11.00 per unit.
The company inn its unaudited half year ended June 30, 2022 announced operating profit that is 9.4per cent lower Year-on-Year (YoY) at N1.6 billion from N1.8billion reported in H1 2021 and margin contraction to 3.1per cent impacted by losses in the Animal Feeds and Other Edibles segment.
Profit before tax of N12 million impacted by lower operating profit as well as higher finance costs YoY. And report a loss per share of 18 kobo (H1 2021: positive earnings per share of 5 kobo).
Revenue in H1 2022 increased 11.9per cent YoY to N52 billion supported by sales growth across all operating segments. Animal Feeds and Other Edibles segment (+7.6 per cent YoY) driven by price increases to offset rising raw material costs. Paints segment (+28.8per cent YoY) on account of price increases and retail footprint expansion.
Packaged Food and Beverages segment (+6.3per cent YoY) driven by price increase in the snack category, improvement in production efficiency in the water category and improved distribution in the dairies category; and the Quick Service Restaurants segment (+28.2per cent YoY) driven by additions to company-owned restaurants (corporate stores) and growth in logistics sales.
In September 2021, UAC acquired Tiger Brands Limited’s minority shareholding (49%) in UAC Foods Limited (UFL) for a cash consideration of N3.92 billion.
Consequently, UFL is now a wholly owned subsidiary of UAC and the total profit attributable to equity holders of UFL was recognised by UAC versus H1 2021 where only 51per cent of the profit attributable to equity holders of UFL was recognised by UAC.
