Heineken-backed Nigerian Breweries Plc looks to use its entire post-tax profit for 2021 as compensation package to shareholders, Company Secretary Uaboi Agbebaku told a press conference heralding the corporation’s forthcoming annual general meeting on Thursday.
The beer-maker, by implication, will not be taking the long view by retaining the profit in its operations but will rather seize the moment to pursue shareholder reward with its bottom-line, which shot 72 per cent to N12.7 billion.
The board resolution is coming over a year after Nigerian Breweries annual dividend hit the lowest level in 15 years as elevated inflation pressured its earnings for the financial year 2020.
Now in its 76th year, Nigeria’s biggest brewer is positioning to ramp up its focus on its premium brands including Heineken and Tiger beers, a strategy that shot sales by as much as 29.7 per cent to N437.2 billion last year.
“The strength of this business is portfolio,” said Emmanuel Oriakhi, the marketing director at the event that was held at Lagos’ Radisson Blu Hotel.
“We are really in the business of portfolio,” he said, emphasising the broad value that each of the company’s product lines is bringing to the table.
If its final dividend is approved by shareholders as planned, the firm’s total dividend for 2021 will be 70.2 per cent bigger than that of the preceding year.
Shareholders are at liberty to convert their dividend value to its equivalent in shares.
“Excise duty has just been introduced on non-alcoholic drink and we aim to pass this on in the most optimal way,” the brewer said in its outlook document for 2022 seen by PREMIUM TIMES.
“It is also a pre-election year with pre-election spend expected to translate to increased consumer spend.”
This January, Dutch-based Heineken Brouwerijen B.V., which owns the biggest stake in Nigerian Breweries, launched a mandatory takeover of rival Champions Breweries as regulation requires, having acquired an 84.7 per cent controlling interest.
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