MARCH ACCOUNTS EARNINGS REPORTING SEASON KICK OFF WITH INTERNATIONAL BREWERY MIXED EARNINGS

The expected earnings release date for companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has been estimated by Investdata based on their historical report dates. As the market has entered the mid-month of the deadline for submitting audited financials for companies with March 31, 2017 year-end, it is expected that more earnings reports will hit the market going forward in this month of June, July and August.

Considering the increasing numbers of companies paying interim dividend, this expectation is likely to add more momentum to the market for Q2 earnings season as investors look forward to cash or scrip dividends from full-year and half-year accounts of companies. This however depends on the strength of the earnings reported.

The earliest filer of March year-end account, International Brewery, released its 2017 full-year earnings report to the market on Friday and the numbers posted were mixed with sales revenue for the period growing by 40.58% to N32.77bn, while profit fell by 61.01% to N1.03bn.

As we know, most of the companies that have March year-end are manufacturing companies; members of the investing public should not expect surprises as such but mild performance and disappointment. This is because the peak production period of these companies’ financial year was also the height of Nigeria’s recession and weak business environment which is expected to reflect on their performance. Worthy of note is the FX propelled components of these company’s costs, as well as losses in the last quarter of their financial year when CBN forex policy and intervention brought relative relief to industry.

Research shows that an increasing number of companies with their shares listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) are complying with their post-listing requirements to boost investing community confidence and at the same time help them to plan their investment or trading by forecasting the future to appropriately price the stocks in future.
Below are tables with the expected release date, last year’s dividend, EPS and the current (Q3)EPS to guide you accordingly

                                                                 MARCH YEAR END

Company name	Expected Release Date	Last Dividend	Latest Q3 Eps	2016 Full year Eps	Expected Div
7 up	29thJune 2017	1.60	-7.56	5.23	Nil
Academy press	30thJune 2017	-	-0.17	-0.05	nil
Avon crown cap	30thJune 2017	-	-		-
Flour mills	21st July 2017	1.00	2.50	3.38	1.50
Red star express	01thJuly 2017	0.35	0.34	0.57	0.30
Honey well	30thJune 2017		0.17	-0.48	0.10
Northern Nig flour mill	30thJune 2017	-	0.31	-	-
University press	30st June2017	0.20	0.31	0.32	0.18
Triple GGG	8 July 2016	-	0.01	0.08	Nil

                                                               

                                                                INTERIM DIVIDEND

Company name	EXPECTED   RELEASE DATE	LAST INTRIME. DIVIDEND	Q2 Eps 2016	Q1 2017 Eps	Projected Q2 EPS 2017
Africa prudential	20th July 2017	NO	0.19	0.20	0.39
Access bank	16th Aug 2017	0.25	1.37	0.91	1.72
Axa mansard	31st July 2017	0.03	0.07	0.08	0.17
Consolidate hallmark	30th July 2017	0.02	0.04	0.02	0.05
Custodian & allied	28st July 2017	0.06	0.12	0.18	0.28
GTBank	18th Aug. 2017	0.25	2.74	1.47	3.20
Zenith bank	15th Aug. 2017	0.25	1.46	1.19	2.74
Stanbic IBTC	9th July 2017	NO	o.84	1.55	3.40
UBA	25th Aug 2017	0.20	0.94	0.63	1.42
Total Nigeria	30th July 2017	3.00	26.31	7.87	18.00