Nigerian Breweries posts 4.3% jump in revenue on post-lockdown recovery

Nigerian Breweries (NB) Plc, the nation’s biggest beermaker by market size and capitalisation, printed a 4.3 per cent increase in revenue for the full-year (FY) 2020, at N337.01 billion from N323 billion in the same period in 2019.

NB saw its fourth quarter period (Q4 2020) net revenue surged 18 per cent — fastest Q4 year-on-year net revenue growth since 2012, following a robust post-lockdown recovery in the second half of the year.

In its 2020 performance result, Heineken NV, NB’s parent company, said “Strong recovery in Nigeria in second half, growing volume FY and winning market share. Double-digit growth in premium, led by Heineken and Tiger” were the major highlights of the company during the year.

NB’s cost of sales in 2020 spiked 13.8 per cent to end at N218.35 billion from N191.75 billion in 2019. The management’s efficiency saw the marketing and distribution expenses decline by 8.9 percent at N70.70 billion from N77.69 billion same period in 2019. Administrative expenses also decline slightly to N19.21 billion from N19.35 billion.

Due to the impact of pandemic induced restrictions which disrupted supply chains across the country and closure of public bars, the company’s profit after tax for the year declined significantly from N16.09 billion in 2019 to N7.36 billion in 2020.

During the year, donations in cash and kind valued at about N531 million out of a phased commitment of N600 million to the federal and seven state governments’ COVID-19 task forces relief funds.

The board of directors will be recommending to the shareholders at the forthcoming annual general meeting the declaration of a total dividend of N7.52billion, at 50k per share representing a hundred percent dividend payout ratio.

Heineken NV, NB’s parent company, recently purchased another 1.9 billion ordinary shares of Champion Breweries located in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state.

Heineken through its subsidiary, Raysun Nigeria Limited, purchased the new shares at N2.60 per unit at a total of N4.95 billion on January 7.

Heineken now has a total of 84.7 percent in Champion Breweries, a move to further expand its control of the Nigerian Beer market and put it in a strong position as the majority shareholder to make a takeover attempt.