University Press Plc on Thursday held its Annual General Meeting at the Kakanfo Inn and Conference Centre, Ibadan, where it announced a revenue of N1.61bn for the 2016/2017 financial year.
The Chairman of the company, Dr. Lekan Are, who was unanimously re-elected at the meeting alongside two other board members, Obafunso Ogunkeye and Prof. Akachi Ezeigbo, said that despite the difficult economic situation in the country, the company recorded 62 per cent increase in profit after tax when compared with what it made in the previous financial year.
Are commended the company’s management and staff for working extra hours without asking for additional remuneration.
For the 2016/2017 fiscal year, Are noted that the company’s assets stood at N2.4bn, while it incurred foreign exchange loss of N59m due to payment for goods bought in 2015, adding that activities of pirates in the book industry were costing publishers huge revenue leakage.
The chairman said, “The global GDP declined marginally from 32 per cent in 2015 to 3.1 per cent in 2016. Nigeria’s economy slipped into recession in 2016, reflecting economic shocks, inconsistent economic policies and security challenges. The publishing sector was also hard hit as a result of its dependence on foreign exchange to purchase raw materials for printing and settling financial obligations to foreign printers.
“Despite the challenging year, our company recorded a better result than it did in the previous year, with revenue of N1.61bn for the 2016/2017 financial year. When compared with the 2015/2016 revenue of N1.472bn, the revenue rose by nine per cent. This impacted on the profit after tax, which increased by 62 per cent from N73.3m in 2015/2016 to N118.4m in 2016/2017.
“In view of this performance, the Board is pleased to recommend a dividend of 10k per 50k ordinary share in respect of the 2016/2017 financial year to reflect an increase of 100 per cent when compared to 5k per share paid last year. The amount will translate to a cash outlay of N43.1m.”
Are added that the total capital expenditure of the company for the past year was N104.5m, which was invested in the acquisition of field vehicles, office and computer equipment for operational enhancement.
During the customer and staff awards, the chairman said that despite the economic difficulty, the board had managed to sustain the company without having to lay off workers.
He stated that the event represented the company’s way of appreciating long serving workers and to motivate others to do more in appreciation of UPL’s commitment to rewarding dedicated staff.