The board of 7UP Bottling Company has blamed Nigeria’s harsh situation for its inability to pay dividend to shareholders from its operations as it performed poorly, having recorded ₦10.7 billion loss before tax for the financial year ended March 2017.
The company also stated that due to the loss, it won’t declare dividend to its shareholders for the first time in over five years.
According to the company, “the depreciation of the naira, ensuing scarcity and foreign exchange crisis that was prevalent most of last year led to an increase in finance and raw materials cost. Cost of sale went up from ₦60.6 billion in 2016 to ₦90.5 billion in 2017, gross profit fell from ₦25 billion in 2016 to ₦12.9 in 2017 and we recorded a loss after tax of ₦10.7 billion this year compared to a profit after tax of ₦3.34 billion in 2016.”
The company, however, said it recorded gross revenue of ₦108.2 billion, adding that it apparently decided that it will not be paying dividends because it had reported a loss after tax.
“Selling and distribution increased to ₦13.9 billion in 2017 from ₦11.8 billion and our revenue increased from ₦85.6 billion in 2016 to ₦108.2 billion in 2017. This incidentally is the first time in about five years that Seven Up (7UP) has gone a financial year without paying dividends,” the company said.