BUA Foods has improved profit after tax by 22.72 per cent to N112.1bn in 2023 from the N91.3bn reported in the prior year.
According to its annual report and financial statements for the year ended December 2023 filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited, the firm’s revenue rose by 74.36 per cent to N729.44bn.
The Board of Directors recommended for the approval of shareholders a payment of N5.50k dividend per ordinary share of 50 kobo compared to N4.50 declared in 2022.
The company’s shareholders would be getting about N99bn as dividends.
The founder of the firm, Abdul Samad Rabiu, holds 89.85 per cent of the shares directly and another 2.78 per cent indirectly.
Net finance costs surged by 1,030 per cent to N98.181bn from N8.682bn in 2022.
Meanwhile, total assets hit N1.07tn in 2023 from N607.22bn in the previous year.
The principal activities of the group are processing, manufacturing, production and distribution of food materials such as sugar, flour, pasta, rice, and edible oils as well as packaged foods.
Recently, the Managing Director of BUA Foods, Ayodele Abioye, disclosed that the company had invested over $200m in its integrated sugar estate in Lafiagi, Kwara State.
He revealed that the company was investing in the project comprising a sugar refinery, ethanol plant and other supporting infrastructure to reduce dependence on forex-impacted raw materials.
He said, “The bulk of our raw materials are FX-dependent, which is a major issue. As it stands today, Nigeria is yet to be an industrial agricultural producer of sugarcane, which is a major source of raw material for us.
“We still depend on other countries. One of the things we are working with the government is to accelerate development in sugar cane agriculture. It used to be there.”
According to Abioye, the BUA sugar estate in Lafiagi is sitting on about 20,000 hectares of land space, an integrated project that has a combination of cultural estate and 20,000 metric tonnes of refinery, 15,000 tonnes of crushed canes daily capacity.
SOURCE: PUNCHNG
