The shareholders of Beta Glass Plc are now reaping from their investments as their collective equity improved by N3.7 billion in 2017, the Chairman of the company, Abimbola Ogunbanjo, has revealed. 

Besides, the company recorded an increase in turnover from N19.09 billion to N22.186 billion representing 16.2 per cent, a growth that was mainly driven by price increases in response to inflationary trends and partly by cost efficiencies offsetting the rising input costs.

Ogunbanjo also said the company remained focused on creating value for its esteemed shareholders, noting that working capital rose during the year due to the evolving challenging market conditions, which improved marginally towards the end of the year.

He said the improvement resulted from the strong profit and adjustments for the dividend distributed during the year.

The company’s chief, at the 44th yearly general meeting in Lagos, said borrowings increased in response to prevailing foreign exchange shortages and higher import requirements.

The transition to the new foreign exchange regime and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s designated SMIS window resulted in a time lag of availability and settlement of dollars obligations, increasing borrowings that were short term in nature.

According to him, the company’s cash flow was managed efficiently given the difficult conditions and the capital expenditure spending, which were significantly higher compared to previous year, due to the impending furnace cold repair.

However, in an interview with the Founder/National Co-ordinator, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Sir Sunday Nwosu, he said: “Some people think the result is fantastic, but I do not think it is.

“Turnover maybe up there, but the bottom line is what concerns us. If you have N100 billion turnover and your profit drops to one billion, you haven’t done well.”

Nwosu, who said “there has been a lot of stress on the whole thing,” added that the important thing is that shareholders were compensated with an increase of about nine kobo.

“But when you take 170 kobo over the share price, you will see that it does not make any sense.”