Notore reports 2019 half year profit

Notore Chemical Industries has unveiled an operating profit of N4.63 billion for the half year ended March 31, 2019, in contrast to N0.11bn recorded in the corresponding period of 2018.

In line with the unaudited six months performance showed that Notore recorded revenues of N12.68bn in 2019, compared to N15.17bn in the corresponding period in H1 2018, indicating a decline of 16.03 per cent.  The decline was mainly due to plant downtime during the period under review as a result of the Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) activities.

However, the TAM programme is expected to be completed by the first quarter (Q1) of 2020, after which the plant will operate at its nameplate capacity.

Cost of sales was reduced from N11.404bn in 2018 to N9.636bn in 2019, while cost of sales margin variation over the two periods, H1 2019 and H1 2018 financial year, was minimal at 0.80 per cent increase, because natural gas, which constitutes 90 per cent of the input cost, excluding plant depreciation, has a fixed unit price under a 20-year gas contract. Despite the growth of 4,251 per cent in operating profit, Notore ended the H1 2019 with a loss of N1.942bn due to its net finance cost of N6.57bn, as against N5.144bn in 2018.