Flour Mills of Nigeria declares 17% dividend increase at N1.40 per share

Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN) Plc, owners of the popular Golden Penny Food brand and one of Nigeria’s leading food and agro-allied companies have declared a dividend of N1.40 per share after ending to March 31, 2020, on a strong note.

FMN made the declaration at the company’s 60th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos where its shareholders voted for the dividend payment.

The dividend which will be payable on Monday 14th September 2020 to shareholders, whose names appear in the Register of Members at the close of business on Friday 14th August 2020 will not be subject to withholding tax.

Meanwhile, the dividend of N1.40 per share is 16.67 percent higher than the N1.20 that was declared in the previous year. The total dividend of N5.7 billion declared in 2020 is N800 million higher than the N4.9billion that was paid in 2019. According to the Vice-chairman, Flour

Mills of Nigeria, Emmanuel A. Ukpabi, “the declared dividend was based on confidence in the business.” Despite prevailing economic headwinds and the difficult operating terrain of Apapa FMN finished the year strong with record 184 percent profit growth, as compiled from its audited 2019/20 financial results.

With a remarkable growth in all three key segments of Food, Agro-allied and Sugar businesses, the 60-year-old company reported a Profit After Tax (PAT) increase by N7.4 billion from

N4 billion in the full year 2019 to N11.4 billion in 2020.

Analysis of the financial result announced on August 3 shows that the 2020 profit growth rate was the highest the company has recorded in the last six years. Closest to the 184 percent records was in 2016 when it reported a PAT growth of 70 percent.

A breakdown of FMN’S 2020 financial revealed that its Agro-allied division was a major catalyst in the growth record reported in the review year as the business segment of the company reached profitability. This was largely due to the consistent and focused investments that have been made in its locally sourced segment over the last few years. The management’s strategy has been to continue to stimulate organic growth in all segments of the business.

Flour Mills had invested about N95 billion in its agroallied business. The company in 2016 injected N45 billion in its Sunti Golden, one of only two sugar mills in the country capable of producing crystalised sugar from locally grown sugar cane. This was an addition to the already invested N50 billion in a state-ofthe-art sugar refinery in Apapa capable of refining up 2 000mt of sugar per day.

“We will remain focused on increasing operational efficiency within the group as we continue to implement our accelerated cost optimization plans across all businesses to ensure profitability in the new operating environment,” Paul Gbededo, group managing director of FMN said.