NB to Invest in Capacity Building Monday, May 12 2008 

Club News jonbullfinancial 5:47 pm

Nigerian Breweries Plc (NB) has said its commitment to invest in both material and human resources in order to sustain its desire of being a leading company in the country.
Mr. Micchiel Herkemij, managing director NB who stated this at the presentation of the company’s fact behind the figure at the Nigerian Stock Exchange said the need to invest more in capacity building has became necessary going by the strong demand experienced in the consumption of its products last year and also to help surmount the rising tempo of the competitors.
Herkemij noted that part of the model of investment would include renewing of the company’s Brewery in Lagos and Kaduna, bringing back the brewing of Star and Gulder beer in Aba, Abia State and also to commence brewing of Fayrouz in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state.
He explained that due to the astronomical increase in the importation of raw materials into the country and the emergence of food crisis in the world, the company would develop local materials for the production of raw materials such as sorghum among others.
Herkemij noted that the sales were running at a maximum capacity due to the innovation initiated by the company in introducing can beer and Fayrouz a non-alcoholic premium soft drink.
“We successfully commissioned a canning line in Lagos Brewery as well as launched three of our products, Star, Heineken and Amstel Malta in can packages. The response of consumers to the can has been overwhelming.
‘In addition, we successfully had a re-launches for Gulder and Amestel Malta, in 2007 our non-alcoholic premium soft drink, Fayrouz marked a successful full year in Nigeria market,” Herkemij said
He said identified power supply as one of the major challenges facing the company, remarking that the power sector has not witnessed the desired level of improvement.
The managing director noted that the challenges facing the business with regard to electricity supply and other social infrastructure still continue to burden the cost level of companies.
He appealed to the government and other stakeholders to urgently find a lasting solution because of the rising wave of cost of production arising from dearth of power supply.
Herkemij commended the company’s key distributors and transporters for their untiring efforts in making sure that the company’s products are found all over the country.
He noted that the company is targeting a high profit margin this year going by the excellence performance in 2007.
Herkemij explained that the perfomances of the company resulted in an unprecedented profit after tax (PAT) of N18.9 billion in 2007 as against N10.9 billion posted in 2006 representing an increase of 74 per cent while operating profit rose by N27.3 billion in 2007 compared to N16.9 in 2006 representing an increase of 61 per cent.
He said that profit before tax grew by 70 per cent from N16.4 in 2006 to N27.8 in 2007.
Herkemij noted that the company recorded a turnover of N111.7 billion in 2007 against N86.3 billion posted in 2006 which signified an increase of 29 per cent while shareholders’ funds rose by N43.1 billion compared to N36.2 billion amounting to an increase of 19 per cent.

 

Return of the Bulls Monday, May 12 2008 

Market Update jonbullfinancial 5:34 pm

The Nigerian stock market closed on a bullish note for the second consecutive day in the week as the market capitalisation of the equity sector experienced remarkable price appreciation.
The market capitalisation gained N159 billion to close at N11.61 trillion as highly capitalised stocks recorded price appreciation.
The percentage rise in the market capitalisation is about 1.39 per cent while the All-share index equally rose by 1.39 per cent to close at 60,069.86 points
The upsurge reflected in the market indicators was attributed to investors’ renewed interest in stocks.
On the whole, investors staked N10.95 billion on 609.39 million ordinary shares invested in 17,813 transactions.
Analysis of transactions on the exchange showed the banking sub-sector as the most active with a turnover of 310.16 million shares valued at N7.29 billion in 8,455 deals. Insurance sub-sector came next with a turnover of 165.08 million shares worth N611.12 million in 3,198 transactions, food/beverages and tobacco sub-sector ranked third with a turnover of 37.35 million shares valued at N826.34 million in 1,587 transactions and conglomerates sub-sector followed with a turnover of 19.28 million shares worth N305.66 million exchanged in 562 deals.
Packaging sub-sector came fifth with a turnover of 12.76 million shares valued at N115.58 million in 417 deals, building materials sub-sector recorded a turnover of 9.15 million shares worth N209.55 million in 280 deals, automobile and tyre sub-sector had a turnover of 6.12 million shares valued at N24.95 million in 369 deals while maritime sub-sector came behind with a turnover of 5.36 million shares valued at N46.87 million in 358 deals.
Nestle Nigeria topped on the gainers’ chart with N7.00 to close at N219.00. Oando Plc followed with N3.10 to close at N248.00, United Bank for Africa (UBA) added N2.75 to close at N57.75 and Zenith Bank was up by N2.24 to close at N47.24.
First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) rose by N2.20 to close at N46.20, Julius Berger appreciated by N2.01 to close at N99.01 while Nigerian Breweries (NB) and Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) gained N2.00 apiece to close at N89.00 and N51.50 per share.
Cadbury Nigeria grew by N1.87 to close at N39.39 Eterna Oil climbed up by N1.84 to close at N38.80 per share, G Cappa rose by N1.47 to close at N31.27 and Beta Glass gained N1.15 to close at N24.15 per share.
However, on the contrary, Mobil Oil Plc led the losers’ chart with N10.91 to close at N225.00. It was followed by Costain (WA), shedding N2.35 to close at N44.81, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) dropped by N2.10 to close at N247.90, Dangote Sugar Refinery lost N1.32 to close at N30.98 while Dangote Flour Mills slipped by N1.13 to close at N29.65.
Also, Berger Paints depreciated by 82 kobo to close at N15.68, B.O.C Gases fell by 81 kobo to close at N15.47, Air Services & Logistic shed 79 kobo to close at N17.20, Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) lost 78 kobo to close at N60.00 and Pharma-Deko lost 68 kobo to close at N13.01 among others.