uac of Nigeria Plc’s strategic initiatives of creating separate business units for its restaurants, dairies and franchising are increasingly showing signs of yielding huge returns in the years ahead as the company announced an impressive Group performance in its 2007 financial highlights.

This observation was made by the Chairman of the company, Mohammed Wushishi, at the recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company held at Novotel Festac Hotel in Lagos Wushishi, who announced that the Group’s turnover peaked at N31.4 billion, representing an increase of 11% on the N28.4 billion posted in the preceding year, while operating profit before tax and minority interest stood at N4.28 billion, representing 40% growth over the N3.06 billion recorded in 2006.

According to him, this performance is indicative of the significant improvement in the fundamentals of the Company and reflects the positive bottom-line impact of various strategic initiatives during the year.  Emphasis now is rapidly growing both the top and bottom-lines.  Despite a significant reduction on the level of exceptional items, profit before tax and minority interest stood at N5.06 billion, representing 31% growth.

Given the improved performance, he stated that the company has announced an interim dividend of N640.29 million, representing 50 Kobo for every ordinary share, adding that the board has also recommended a final dividend of N1,536 billion, representing 120 kobo for every ordinary share held.

In addition, the chairman noted that the dividend recommended reflects the board’s policy of rewarding shareholders with good returns on their investment, stressing that the total dividend paid amounted to 2,176.98 million representing N1.70 kobo for every 50 kobo ordinary share held.

Culled from BusinessDay (Companies & Markets),Page 20. Article written by Philip Okafor