MRS Nigeria plc, a company in the oil and gas downstream sector, has recorded an 865.06 percent increase in third quarter profits as it continues to seek aggressive market expansion, analysis of the Company’s financial statement has shown.
For the first six months through September 2014, the Company’s profit before (PBT) surged by 865.06 percent to N1.24bn from N129.31bn the same period of the corresponding year (Q3) 2013.
Turnover reduced slightly by 0.67 percent to N69.24bn in Q3 2014 as against N69.71 the corresponding period of last year.
A 1687.69 percent increase in income tax liability couldn’t stop profit after tax (PAT) from spiking by 528.84 percent to N577.23m from N91.79m the preceding year.
This is an impressive result given the challenging industry the company operates in.
It would be recalled that a lot firms in the sector are rebounding from the subsidy gloom that led to liquidity squeeze resulting in huge debt in their capital structure as they were unable to settle loans owned to banks.
MRS had a better control of direct costs attributable to projects as gross profit spiked by 13.47 percent to N4.80bn compared with N4.23bn as at Q3 2013, gross margin increased to 6.93 percent in 2013 from 6 percent last year.
Cost of sales was up by 1.59 percent to N64.44bn in Q3 2014 as against N65.48bn the preceding year while cost of sales margin remained flattish at 93 percent.
Total assets were down by 20.15 percent to N52.44bn from N65.68bn the preceding year.
Fixed asset turnover, which measures the ability of a firm in utilising assets to generating sales, profits and dividends was 132 times, higher than the 106 times recorded last year.
Inventories were down by 41.55 percent to N4.51bn in Q3 2014 as against N7.72bn the same period of the corresponding year (Q3) 2013.
Current ratio, which measures the ability of a firm to its short term obligations as at when due increased to 1.18x from 1.08x last year which is still below the 2.1x industry average.
With about 138 active companies owned operating outlets and more than 255 third parties owned operating outlets; MRS Oil Nigeria Plc is a major player in Nigeria’s petroleum products marketing industry.
MRS is also a leading producer of quality lubricating oils and greases. The Company is principally engaged in the business of marketing and distribution of refined petroleum products, blending of lubricants and manufacturing of greases.
The company’s share price closed N56 on the floor of the NSE while market capitalisation was N14.23bn.
BALA AUGIE
Source : BusinessDay