WorldStage Newsonline– Nestle Nigeria has released its first quarter (Q1) 2018 results which showed that sales were up 10% to N67.5 billion while profit before (PBT) declined by -5% to N13.6 billion when compared with Q1 2017.
Nestle Nigeria recorded 4.5% decline in profit before tax to N13.640 billion due to 89% decline in interest income to N281.3m, which led to a net finance charge of –N879m compared with a net finance income of N1.1bn in the corresponding quarter of 2017.
However, profit after tax (PAT) was up by 3% to N8.6bn due to a relatively lower effective tax rate of 37% compared with 42% in Q1 2017.
Interest expense was down by -24% y/y following the continued deleveraging of the firm’s balance sheet. A slight gross margin contraction of -22bps to 38.2% and a 9% rise in opex also weighed on profitability.
