By Kayode Tokede
With hike in cost of sales and total operating expenses, Nascon Allied Industries Plc has reported 2.5 per cent drop in profit as reported in its half year (H1) ended June 30, 2021 result and accounts.
The company on the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Monday in its H1 2021 reported N1.45billion profit from N1.49 billion reported in H1 2020.
Profit before tax also dropped by 6.4 per cent to N2.13billion in H1 2021 from N2.28billion reported in H1 2020.
A check by our correspondent revealed that Nascon Allied Industries reported 22 per cent increase in total operating expenses to N4.65billion in H1 2021 from N3.79billion reported in H1 2020.
The breakdown of Nascon Allied Industries total operating expenses showed distribution costs gaining nearly 20 per cent to N3.28billion in H1 2021 from N2.74billion reported in H1 2020 while, administrative expenses rose by nearly 30 per cent to N1.36billion in H1 2021 from N1.05billion reported in H1 2020.
Nascon Allied Industries’s total assets rose by 3.04 per cent to N45.7billion as at June 30, 2021 from N44.31billion reported in full year ended December 31, 2020.
NASCON, a member of the Dangote Group, relocated 60 per cent of its Apapa production plant to its Oregun and Port Harcourt facilities in 2019 because the Apapa port traffic was weighing on the distribution and supply chain of the salt maker.
”We also operate inside the port. If you look at our income between 2017 and 2018, we lost over N25 billion because of congestion,” said Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote had said.
“We are able to produce but we are not able to come out of the port because of congestion of the port resulting from the gridlock in the Apapa axis.”
At a general meeting held on 29 September 2006, the shareholders approved the acquisition of the assets, liabilities and business undertakings of Dangote Salt Limited and the issue and allotment of additional NASCON PLC shares as the purchase consideration.
The major shareholder of the Company is Dangote Industries Limited that owns 62.19% of the issued share capital, while the remaining 37.81% is held by the general public.