Giant brewer, Guinness Nigeria has released its financial results for the third quarter of 2018 showing an impressive growth in profit before tax, PBT.
The brewer’s PBT jumped by 98% to N4.4 billion when compared with Q3 2017, while, largely driven by a 2,811bp expansion in tax rate, profit after tax (PAT) growth slowed to 40% to N3.0 billion.
Although sales leaped by 15% to N34.9bn, gross margins shrunk by -922bps to 33.2%, this was not strong enough to offset the strong sales growth, a -12% decline in operating expenses and a net interest income of N318m versus a net interest expense of –N2.1bn recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2017.
On a 9M basis, sales advanced by 17% to N105.5bn. PBT and PAT of N7.9bn and N5.1bn compare with pre- and post-tax losses of –N2.5bn and –N2.6bn respectively recorded in 9M 2017. Although gross margin contracted by -103bps, this was offset by declines of -8% and -58% in operating expenses and net finance charges respectively, and led to the profits on the bottom line.
