Custodian Investment Plc has declared a Profit After Tax (PAT) of N1.5 billion in the third quarter of 2020, as against N1.37 billion posted the same period in 2019.

This is according to the consolidated financial report of the firm for Q3 2020.

What you should know

The firm recorded impressive results in some key financial metrics such as;

• Gross Revenue grew by 42% from N15.85 billion to N22.52 billion.
• Interest income advanced by 11.3% Year-on-Year.
• Investment income gained 25.4% from N5.61 billion to N7.03 billion.
• Earnings per share appreciated by 50% from N24 to N36 for the period under view.
• Other investments and operating income grew by approximately N6.40 billion.
• Total assets also grew by 27% from N118.01 billion to N149.94 billion for the period under view.
• Profit before tax marginally grew by 2.8% from N1.69 billion to N1.73 billion.

What this means

• The growth in revenue and profitability is attributable to an increase in financial and reinsurance assets which appreciated by 35.62% and 32.5% (Y-O-Y) respectively.
• An increase in investment and interest incomes were also very important in driving revenue.
• On the contrary, despite recording increased gross revenue, the net profit margin decreased over time, from 23.91% recorded as of Q3 2019 to 5.8% in Q3 2020. Thus, indicating a probability of weak cost control mechanism or that variable values are not well controlled.
• The Net profit margin indicates that the company earned N0.057K in profit for every N1 it received in revenue as of Q3, 2020. This is lower compared to N0.24k for every N1 it earned in revenue in Q3, 2019.
• This is evident in the higher operating expenses recorded as of Q3 2020 which is up by 97.4% when compared with the figures obtained in the corresponding period last year (Q3 2019).

Trans-Nationwide Express Plc, a logistics and courier service company in Lagos, Nigeria, suffered N79 million loss in the third quarter of 2020.

This disclosure was based on the Q3 2020 financials sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

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Breakdown

• Revenue declined by 7.5% Year-on-Year, from N548.3 million as of the corresponding period last year to N507.17 million this year.
• The dip was largely due to a decline in revenue from courier services, which contributed about 54.1% of the total revenue as of Q3, 2020.
• The revenue from courier services declined from N326.44 million to N274.40 million for the period under view.
• On the contrary, other revenue churning segments like Freight income, logistics income, internal mailing income, and warehouse all recorded a positive outlook, as they all grew viz-a-viz last year’s figures.
• Gross profit declined by 7.1% from N321.23 million to N298.40 million in the period under view.
• Administrative expenses increased by 17.5% from N321.0 million to N377.1 million within the period under view.
• Cash received from customers recorded a dip from N542.28 million to N523.07 million, indicating a slip of about 3.5%.

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What this means

The pandemic affected several businesses and sectors, the transportation and logistics sectors were not exempted. The loss might have been largely due to the period of economic inactivity, due to embargo on inter-state and international travels.

The high cost of maintenance, coupled with little or no revenue in those periods also played a major part.

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Explore Data on the Nairametrics Research Website

Total Nigeria Plc recorded N500.12 million as Profit After Tax in Q3 2020, against the N204.84 million loss it suffered in the corresponding period last year – a 344% increase.

The information is contained in a recent disclosure sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange Market today.

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In addition, it also recorded an 881% rise in Profit Before Tax (PBT) for the period under view, as PBT increased to N912.89 million, against N116.95 million loss recorded in the corresponding period last year.

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On the contrary, revenue during the period under view declined by 32%, from N221.84 billion recorded in Q3 2019 to N151.71 billion in Q3 2020.

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What this means

The reason for the mixed result in terms of the dip in revenue and a non-corresponding increase in profit is largely due to a drastic reduction in costs. This simply means that the firm was able to manage its costs very well despite recording lower revenue.

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For example, the firm was able to do the following:

• Reduce its cost of sales to about N66.06 billion, from N196.74 billion as of Q3 2019 to N130.68 billion in Q3 2020 – indicating a 33.6% reduction.
• Reduce its finance cost by 58.25% and increase its finance income by 664.3%.
• The number of staff also reduced by 6%, hence impacting administrative costs.
• Interest on bank loans and overdraft remarkably declined by approximately 64.0%.
• On the flip side, the impact of the lockdown period, due to the spread of the pandemic, affected the revenue of the firm, which may have accounted for the 32% dip in revenue for the period under view.

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