BusinessDay 13 April 2018
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22<br />
BUSINESS DAY<br />
COMPANIES<br />
& MARKETS<br />
Company news analysis and insight<br />
C002D5556<br />
Friday <strong>13</strong> <strong>April</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />
FBNInsurance maintains<br />
strong performance with<br />
37% growth in PBT<br />
Pg. 23<br />
These charts validate CCNN’s stock rally<br />
…Profit hits five year high of N3.22bn<br />
BALA AUGIE<br />
The Cement Company<br />
of Northern Nigeria<br />
(CCNN) Plc’s profit<br />
after tax stood at N3.22<br />
billion as at December<br />
2017, representing a 106.50 percent<br />
surge from the N1.56 billion<br />
recorded five years ago.<br />
Revenue followed the same<br />
growth trajectory, hitting N19.58<br />
billion in December 2017. This represented<br />
a 29.83 percent increase<br />
from the N15.31 billion recorded<br />
in December 20<strong>13</strong>.<br />
The company’s shares have<br />
gained 71.31 percent since January<br />
2, 2015, to close at N17.80 percent<br />
at close of trading day on Wednesday<br />
<strong>April</strong> 6, <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
The relative peace in the northern<br />
part of the country and low<br />
competition where the company<br />
supplies cement were major drivers<br />
of utilisation rates for the company.<br />
The cement maker is efficient in<br />
deploying shareholders’ resources<br />
in generating higher profit as net<br />
profit margins hit 16.25 percent<br />
in the period under review, a 0.60<br />
point increase from 10.23 percent<br />
recorded five years ago.<br />
CCNN’s energy mix has yielded<br />
fruit as cost of sales ratio fell to<br />
61.25 percent in the period under<br />
review, from 69.25 percent reported<br />
in December 2016.<br />
This means the company has<br />
spent less to produce each unit of<br />
product.<br />
A price increase across products<br />
that helped to outdo the rise in<br />
per tonne production underpinned<br />
margins. CCNN is lowly geared,<br />
which means it is not beleaguered<br />
by debt as debt-to-equity ratio<br />
stood at <strong>13</strong> percent as at Decem-<br />
ber 2017, as against five percent<br />
recorded in December 20<strong>13</strong>.<br />
With the positive economic<br />
outlook and government plans to<br />
spend on infrastructure, cement<br />
makers’ sales volume could get a<br />
boost.<br />
The International Monetary<br />
Fund (IMF) has projected that<br />
Nigeria’s economy will grow by 2.1<br />
percent in <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
The forecast which represents<br />
0.2 percent from the 1.9 percent<br />
projected in October 2017.<br />
President Muhammadu Buhari<br />
has presented a record budget of<br />
N8.60 trillion to the National Assembly<br />
for <strong>2018</strong>.<br />
Out of the total budget figure,<br />
N2.4 trillion has been earmarked<br />
for capital spending.<br />
Nigeria has infrastructure deficit<br />
of $2 trillion, according to the Africa<br />
Finance Corporation.<br />
The 17 million housing deficit is<br />
a low hanging fruit for cement makers<br />
to grow sales volume.<br />
“We estimate that an additional<br />
two million housing units by 2020e<br />
from the public sector alone (as<br />
highlighted in the economic recovery<br />
plan), will unlock about<br />
20-24 million tonnes (mt) of cement<br />
over <strong>2018</strong>e-2020e,” said analysts at<br />
RMBNS, in a recent report on Nigeria’s<br />
cement industry.<br />
Fidelity Bank flags off digital banking awareness campaign<br />
Hope Moses-Ashike<br />
Fidelity Bank Plc on Monday<br />
flagged off a Digital<br />
Banking Awareness Campaign<br />
Week, as part of<br />
concerted efforts to make financial<br />
services easy and accessible to its<br />
customers.<br />
Organised by the Bank’s South-<br />
West Directorate, the week-long<br />
campaign aptly dubbed “Go Digital”<br />
seeks to create awareness on<br />
its electronic banking products<br />
and services.<br />
Speaking at the opening ceremony<br />
at the Corporate Head<br />
Office in Lagos, Regional Bank<br />
Head (RBH), Ikeja, Ken Opara said<br />
the campaign is aimed primarily<br />
at sensitizing customers on the<br />
attendant benefits of using the<br />
Bank’s e-products.<br />
He harped on the need for<br />
banks to leverage digital technologies<br />
and platforms to provide<br />
greater convenient banking solutions<br />
for customers and according<br />
to him one bank that is the<br />
vanguard of this is Fidelity Bank.<br />
“The Bank has continued to invest<br />
significant resources on technology<br />
thus enabling it to digitize<br />
and offer easy to use e-banking<br />
products and services” he said.<br />
Some of the flagship products and<br />
services the staff would be creating<br />
awareness for include the recently<br />
upgraded Fidelity Online Banking<br />
platform. “The new look and<br />
more advanced and user-friendly<br />
online banking platform comes<br />
with additional functionalities<br />
thus making financial service<br />
activities easier and faster for an<br />
unmatched customer experience”,<br />
Opara stated.<br />
Motivated by the desire to<br />
continuously improve customer<br />
experience on its services, Fidelity<br />
Bank recently introduced a<br />
personalized self-service feedback<br />
system on its flagship Instant<br />
Banking Service *770#. With all of<br />
these significant strides in technology<br />
deployment, Opara noted<br />
that there was a need to enlighten<br />
the Bank’s customers on some of<br />
its latest offerings.
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