Neimeth Leads Gainers as Investors Renew Demand for Shares

Apparently encouraged by the future outlook outlined by the management of Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc on Tuesday, some shareholders of the company increased their demand for the equity at the stock market yesterday.

Consequently, Neimeth led the price gainers, rising by 4.9 per cent to close at N0.64 per share. The management of Neimeth had at the annual general meeting (AGM) held on Tuesday in Lagos unveiled plans to improve the fortunes of the company.

Shareholders had at the AGM expressed confidence on the management of the company led by its first female Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ebere Igboko-Ekpunobi.

Neimeth bounced back to profitability for the year ended September 30, 2016, recording a profit after tax of N65 million, compared with a loss of N335.684 million in 2015.

Turnover rose from N1.461 billion in 2015 to N2.002 billion in 2016, showing an increase of 36 per cent. Gross profit grew from N684.6 million to N1.225 billion, while administrative expenses reduced from N600 million to N527 million. The company also reduced finance costs from N92 million to N89.6 million in 2016. The company ended with profit of N95.361 million compared with N315.77 million loss in 2015.

Igboko-Ekpunobi, had attributed the positive performance to the company’s three strategic imperatives anchoring on a short term transformation, cost reduction and optimising efficiency.

According to her, the company employed three strategic imperatives to anchor its transformation in short -term. They are: revitalise sales and generate more revenue, reduce costs and optinmise efficiency and transform the organisational culture towards a new Neimeth.

She said cost of sale was 38 per cent of sales, enabling a 62 per cent production margin, which exceed the budget expectation of 56 per cent as a proportion of sales and last year’s performance of 47 per cent production margin.

Igboko-Ekpunobi disclosed that significant investments were made to re-engineer manufacturing operations.

“New practices were adopted which contributed to better inventory management, production planning and coordination