The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigerian Breweries

  • Nigerian Breweries declares N38b dividend

    Shareholders of Nigerian Breweries would receive a total of N38 billion as cash dividends for the 2015 business year.

    The board of directors of the breweries has declared a final dividend of N28.5 billion, in addition to interim dividend of N9.5 billion earlier paid by the company, bringing the total cash payouts for the year ended December 31, 2015 to N38 billion.

    A breakdown of the dividend recommendation by the board indicated that shareholders would receive final dividend of N3.60 per share, in addition to interim dividend per share of N1.20, bringing total dividend per share to N4.80 for 2015.

    If approved by shareholders at the upcoming annual general meeting, the dividend would be the highest dividend ever paid by the company in its 70 year history.

    Audited report and accounts of the company showed that turnover rose by 10.3 per cent to N293 billion in 2015 as against N266 billion recorded in 2014. Operating activities declined by 6.9 per cent to close at N62 billion in 2015 as against N66 billion in 2014. Profit before tax dropped by 11.3 per cent from N61 billion in 2014 to N54 billion in 2015 while profit after tax declined by 10.5 per cent to N38 billion in 2015 as against N42 billion in 2014.

    The company said the bottom-line was impacted by reduced consumer purchasing power and increased cost of doing business due mainly to inflation and devaluation.

    In a statement signed by company secretary and legal adviser, Nigerian Breweries, Mr Uaboi Agbebaku, the company stated that it was able to achieve strong results and deliver good return on investment to shareholders due to its twin agenda of cost leadership and market leadership supported by innovation.

    The statement noted that while 2016 business year will see a continuation of the tough operating environment of 2015, the directors of the company remains confident that with the company’s strong portfolio and its cost leadership agenda, it should be able to take advantage of any upswing in the market.

  • Nigerian Breweries declares N38b dividend

    Nigerian Breweries declares N38b dividend

    Shareholders of Nigerian Breweries would receive a total of N38 billion as cash dividends for the 2015 business year.

    The board of directors of the breweries has declared a final dividend of N28.5 billion, in addition to interim dividend of N9.5 billion earlier paid by the company, bringing the total cash payouts for the year ended December 31, 2015 to N38 billion.

    A breakdown of the dividend recommendation by the board indicated that shareholders would receive final dividend of N3.60 per share, in addition to interim dividend per share of N1.20, bringing total dividend per share to N4.80 for 2015.

    If approved by shareholders at the upcoming annual general meeting, the dividend would be the highest dividend ever paid by the company in its 70 year history.

    Audited report and accounts of the company showed that turnover rose by 10.3 per cent to N293 billion in 2015 as against N266 billion recorded in 2014. Operating activities declined by 6.9 per cent to close at N62 billion in 2015 as against N66 billion in 2014. Profit before tax dropped by 11.3 per cent from N61 billion in 2014 to N54 billion in 2015 while profit after tax declined by 10.5 per cent to N38 billion in 2015 as against N42 billion in 2014.

    The company said the bottom-line was impacted by reduced consumer purchasing power and increased cost of doing business due mainly to inflation and devaluation.

    In a statement signed by company secretary and legal adviser, Nigerian Breweries, Mr Uaboi Agbebaku, the company stated that it was able to achieve strong results and deliver good return on investment to shareholders due to its twin agenda of cost leadership and market leadership supported by innovation.

    The statement noted that while 2016 business year will see a continuation of the tough operating environment of 2015, the directors of the company remains confident that with the company’s strong portfolio and its cost leadership agenda, it should be able to take advantage of any upswing in the market.

  • Joy as Nigerian Breweries inaugurates new classroom/library

    Joy as Nigerian Breweries inaugurates new classroom/library

    It was a happy moment at Awo-Omamma in Oru East Local Government Area of Imo State when the Nigerian Breweries (NB) Plc, handed over a six-classroom block with modern facilities to Ubachima Primary School.

    Managing Director/Chief Executive of NB Plc, Nicolas Vervelde, who was represented by Mr Kufre Ekanem, Corporate Affairs Adviser, said the project, built under the Nigerian Breweries-Felix Ohiwerei Education Trust Fund, was aimed at enhancing the quality of education pupils of the school enjoy.

    Vervelde, who appreciated the positive efforts of the Imo State Government in revitalizing the educational system in the State, said that government cannot bear the burden of educational development alone, hence its support.

    “There is no gainsaying the fact that education remains the greatest legacy to be bequeathed to any child and key to sustainable development of our country. As our contribution to this, Nigerian Breweries continues to invest towards the improvement of various aspects of education around the country,” he said.

    NB plc Chief Executive also urged the community, teachers and pupils of the school to protect the investment for sustainable use.

    Headmaster of the school, Mr Obiekee Celestine praised the firm for supporting the government in sustaining free education in the State.

    He however appealed to the firm to also erect a fence round the school to secure the facility from and also solicited for scholarship to indigent children up to tertiary level to help children from poor families attain higher level education and be useful to their communities.

     

  • Nigerian Breweries launches N100b commercial papers

    Nigerian Breweries Plc, Nigeria’s second most capitalised quoted company, has established a N100 billion commercial paper programme to fund its short-term liabilities. The inaugural paper issue under the programme is expected to be launched on or before Thursday this week.

    Regulatory filing indicated that Nigerian Breweries plans to use the new funding programme to complement its other sources of working capital, while diversifying its funding sources to include non-bank investors.

    The programme was established pursuant to the Central Bank of Nigeria Guidelines on the Issuance and Treatment of Bankers Acceptances and Commercial Paper Quotation Rules of the FMDQ. The commercial paper notes, under the programme, will be traded over the counter via the FMDQ OTC Plc platform.

    The professional parties to the transaction included Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited and FBN Capital Limited as Transaction Advisors; Banwo & Ighodalo as Legal Counsel; KPMG Professional Services as Auditors and Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc as Issuing, Calculation and Paying Agent.

    Commercial papers are tradable short-term unsecured promissory notes issued by companies to supplement working capital with their tenors not usually more than nine months.

     

     

  • Nigerian Breweries to reward teachers with cash prices

    The saying that ‘Teacher’s reward is in Heaven’ is about to change as Nigerian Breweries Plc, initiates the Maltina Teacher of the Year award in recognition and celebration of exceptional teachers.

    “The Maltina Teacher of the Year is an initiative designed to recognize, celebrate and motivate teachers in Nigeria with a first year focus on public Secondary Schools,” said Mr. Kufre Ekanem, the Corporate Affairs Adviser of the giant alcoholic and beverage brewer at a press conference to mark the maiden edition of Maltina Teacher of the Year.

    Justifying the need for the initiative, which is coming on the platform of Nigerian Breweries-Felix Ohiiwerei Education Trust Fund, Ekanem said: “Teachers who play a vital role in training, coaching, and determining the quality of education, seldom get the recognition they deserve.”

    “To kick start a remedy of this situation, the Maltina Teacher of the Year initiative aims to recognise and celebrate our exceptional teachers around the country as it is widely said, the children are the future of the Nation and whatever you do for a child ultimately impacts on the nation.”

    All State champions and National winners will be celebrated in a grand ceremony on October 5th this year in commemoration of World Teacher’s Day.

    A cash reward of N500,000 awaits every teacher who emerges as the State champion while in the final event the second runner up will go home with N750,000 and the first runner up will smile home with a cash reward of N1million.

    The exceptional teacher to emerge as The Maltina Teacher of the Year will cash home N1million, with additional N1million deposited in her/his account every October 5th for five years.

    Beside, a classroom block will be built in her school by NB Plc and she will also be rewarded with an all-expenses overseas training.

    Collection of application forms commenced last Wednesday and will last till June 30th. Application forms are expected to be collected and uploaded to the website or sent by post to P.M.B. 12632, Marina, Lagos.

    The five-step evaluation process of the entries received will result in 37 champions, one per each state and the FCT. From amongst these State champions, the Maltina Teacher of the Year will emerge.

    Also speaking at the event, the Director, Human Resources NB, Mr. Victor Famuyibo, regretted that teachers are hardly celebrated and recognised though they influence societal developments.

    Commending the giant Brewery, Chief Wale Oyeniyi the National Union of Teacher’s [NUT] representative who incidentally is also the Acting Deputy Secretary of NUT lamented that: “Despite our hard work we are hardly remembered for good.”

    He called on the other corporate bodies to emulate the NB while vowing that Maltina will become the official drink of teachers in Nigeria.

  • KSA, 2Face thrill fans at Nigerian Breweries’ show

    KSA, 2Face thrill fans at Nigerian Breweries’ show

    The show had blessed many with so much excitement, as guests were thrilled by the performances put up by veteran Juju musician, King Sunny Ade (KSA) and hip hop sensation, 2Face Idibia, but the night will be most unforgettable for the management and staff of Ifeoma Chukwuka Nigeria Limited, winners of the much-anticipated trophy and a brand new Mercedes Diesel Truck.

    The event was Nigerian Breweries Plc Distributors Award night, and Ifeoma Chukwuka Nigeria Limited was named the champion of the distributors, having sold the required cases of Nigerian Breweries products. The company also topped the chart last year, having won the same award in the National Champions Award category.

    It was a night of glitz, glamour and accolades when foremost hip hop sensation, 2Face Idibia, popularly called Tubaba and Juju music maestro, King Sunny Ade thrilled guests to a mixture old and modern music experience. The event venue – the Eko Hotel and Suite  was a beehive of activity as guests savoured the “Partnering for Greatness” show.

    The event which had in attendance senior management staff of the company, distributors across Nigeria, partners, families and well wisher was a night of interaction, fun and dance where KSA and 2Face brought to stage their unique tunes like, Jigijigi, kirakirakita, Aieyretieleya mi, Syncro system and One Love, among others to entertain all at the event.

  • Nigerian Breweries unveils ACE Roots

    Nigerian Breweries unveils ACE Roots

    Nigeria’s biggest brewer, Nigerian Breweries, has launched a new and healthy low sugar drink, ACE Roots, which is a second instalment of the ACE series.

    ACE Roots was unveiled at a trade launch which held at the Havens Event Centre in Ikeja in the presence of key distributors, stakeholders and celebrity guests like Wande Coal, Black Magic, BEAT FM OAP, Gbemi Olateru-Olagbegi, Korede Bello, EFA and DJ Lamboghiny in attendance.

    Also present were representatives from Nigerian Breweries including the Sales Director, Hubert Eze; Zonal Regional Manager, Opeyemi Oluwalusi; Senior Brand Manager, CSD and ACE, NnennaIfebigh-Hemeson; Regional Business Manager, Moses Ogbodo and Marketing Manager, Non-Alcoholic Drinks, Olayinka Bakare.

    ACE Roots has a delightful, flavoured African tang for health conscious Nigerians who want to relax and celebrate their African identity.

    Speaking during the launch, Nigerian Breweries Sales Director, Hubert Eze, said: “Today’s Nigerian youth is implicitly and explicitly African. They want the Africa in their food, they want Africa in their music, they want Africa in their fashion, and they also want Africa in what they drink when relaxing and having fun which is why we decided to create a product with an authentic African soul like those who drink it.”

    ACE released its first variant ”Passion Apple Spark” in December 2014. ACE Roots is made up of 14 natural fruits and herbs with low sugar all mixed in a unique 60cl bottle and sleek can with metalized labels. It will be available for sales beginning from this week.

  • Nigerian Breweries, others to boost cassava production

    Nigerian Breweries, others to boost cassava production

    Nigerian Breweries Plc, Psaltry International Company Limited  and the International Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC) have signed an agreement to optimise the cassava value chain and improve agribusiness for small farmers.

    The agreement is a collaboration between the parties to improve the output of small farmers, support economic development and promote inclusive growth in Africa.

    The partnership will enhance farmers productivity and increase supply of high-quality cassava roots to Psaltry, who will, in turn, provide industrial quality cassava starch for NB to extract maltose syrup for use in the brewing process.

    According  to a statement, the   agreement succeeds the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the partners in June last year which formed part of the 2SCALE programme, a Dutch-funded initiative aimed at improving rural livelihoods and food security in Africa.

    The partners agreed to support small-scale farmers in the production of more and better cassava through technical assistance, training and easier access to finance. This will enable more small farmers to participate in the market for processed cassava byproducts required for large industrial purposes.

    The partnership also enhances NB’s  socio-economic contribution via the agricultural sector and supports the progress the company is making, towards the achievement of Heineken’s ambition to source 60 per  cent  of its agricultural raw materials in Africa locally by 2020.

    Managing Director of Nigerian Breweries, Nicolaas Vervelde,  said: “As an operating company of Heineken we have a long standing commitment to support local economic development and promote inclusive growth by sourcing agricultural raw materials from entrepreneurial local SME’s and utilising it in our operations. Through our partnership with Psaltry and IFDC, we are taking a big step towards further realising this ambition with cassava.”

    From June to December, last year, 2SCALE and Psaltry created awareness, mobilised and trained over 500 direct farmers who supplied more than 20,000 tons of cassava roots to Psaltry’s processing factory. Over 2,000 direct farmers are expected to benefit from the project within the next three years.

  • Nigerian Breweries assures investors of higher returns

    Shareholders of Nigerian Breweries can look forward to better returns in the period ahead as it begins to optimize synergistic values from the recently concluded acquisition of Consolidated Breweries.

    This assurance was given yesterday by the board of the Nigerian Breweries during a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

    Chairman, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Chief Kola Jamodu, said with the conclusion of the business consolidation, the company has started the process of integrating the new business, which would lead to enhanced operational efficiencies and maximised value for all investors.

    According to him, the enlarged Nigerian Breweries would add values to all stakeholders including increased trading activities on the NSE and opportunity for former shareholders of Consolidated Breweries, which was not quoted, to trade their shares on the floor of the exchange.

    He noted that the business consolidation would lead to improvement in the company performance pointing out that the new Nigerian Breweries has 11 breweries that are strategically located across the country as against five breweries the company had before the merger.

    He listed other major benefits from the merger also include cost saving from the consolidation of supply and distribution networks of both companies as a result of improved operational efficiencies arising from integrated operations while the products of both companies will be manufactured more efficiently through their combined operational capabilities.

    “Significant cost saving is targeted by distributing products and selling the enlarged product portfolio of the new company across the entire combined sales and distribution network of the enlarged company. The enlarged company is expected to extend market leadership, accelerate revenue growth and expand profit capacity,” Jamodu said.

    He added that the Nigerian Breweries has maintained stable growth in sales revenue and profitability in the past five years and assured that the company would continue to increase wealth for shareholders and other stakeholders.

    Meanwhile, it was a full run for the bears yesterday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as investors responded to the weekend postponement of general elections. With nearly five losers for every gainer, the market was overwhelmed by widespread sell pressure.

    Aggregate market value of all quoted companies dropped to N9.797 trillion as against its opening value of N10.005 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI), the value-based index that tracks prices of all quoted equities, declined by 2.08 per cent from 29,985.08 points to 29,360.55 points. With this, average year-to-date return mounted to -15.3 per cent.

    Nestle Nigeria topped the 36-stock losers’ list with a loss of N40.25 to close at N764.75. Nigerian Breweries followed with a drop of N7.09 to close at N134.72. Guinness Nigeria dropped by N3.99 to close at N125. Lafarge Africa lost N2.99 to close at N85 while Dangote Cement dropped by N2.69 to close at N157.11.

    On the upside, Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the eight-stock gainers’ list with a gain of N34.21 to close at N333.90. Dangote Flour Mills placed a distant second with a gain of 38 kobo to close at N4.38 while Vitafoam Nigeria rose by 16 kobo to N3.41 per share.

    Aggregate turnover stood at 364.47 million shares valued at N6.03 billion in 3,788 deals.

     

  • ‘Why we unveiled world’s largest bottle tree,’ by Nigerian Breweries

    ‘Why we unveiled world’s largest bottle tree,’ by Nigerian Breweries

    Setting the mood for the yuletide, Nigerian Breweries, through its premium brand, Star Lager, has created a consumer-delight atmosphere, with an iconic bottle tree, planted at the Star Beer Village, Eko Atlantic City, Victoria Island, Lagos.

    Made from 8, 000 bottles, the shimmering blue tree, according to the company’s marketing director, Walter Drenth, was built to showcase the creativity, which abounds in the country.

    The unveiling of the bottle, Wednesday, was part of the Xmas beautification of the Bar Beach line on Ahmadu Bello Way, in preparation for the annual Lagos Countdown festivities which Star is a major sponsor.

    “We are overwhelmed how our people generally have reacted to this humble idea of a giant Star bottle Christmas tree. It goes on to show that people appreciate creativity and our efforts at adding excitement and joy, for which we are grateful,” said Drenth.

    He noted that the structure, being the first-of-its-kind, is a confirmation of his company’s desire to boost the tourism potential of Nigeria.

    He said: “This feat we have achieved is one that hasn’t been done before and we pride ourselves in the attempt to bring joy and perhaps even break a world record. With this, we have put Nigeria on the world map and made Lagos, a tourist site that it truly is. We hope that Nigerians and Star Lager consumers appreciate it and see reasons to be proud of being citizens of Nigeria.”

    It will be recalled that the initial plan was to spend 3, 000 bottles on the tree and beat the world record of 1,000 beer bottles being held by the Chinese city of Shanghai, but the desire got bigger in the process of construction.

    There are indications that notable set designer, Pat Nebo, built the record-breaking tree.

    Also present at the event were the company’s Corporate Media and Brand PR Manager, Edem Vindah, Marketing Manager Star, Goldberg & Export, Tokunbo Adodo, Brand Manager Star Lager Obabiyi Fagade and comedian Lafup amongst others.