John Holt Nigeria Plc, a company engaged in engineering, leasing, trade and distribution businesses, posted an operating profit of N1.63 billion for the year that ended September 30 2015 and 18.5% reduction from N2 billion the previous year.
The company said that the devaluation of the naira was a drain on bottom lines since most of its raw materials and equipments are imported.
John Holt Nigeria Plc is a Nigerian conglomerate and it has been an important participant in many areas of the economy.
The Nigerian company is a subsidiary of a company in the United Kingdom called John Holt & Co. (Liverpool) Limited. A minority of the shares are traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
“Because we are an import dependent company, we had N500 million wiped out because of devaluation,” said the company in a statement. Consequently, the conglomerate giant is seeking investment in businesses that are less import dependent as devaluation of the naira remains a drain on bottom lines.
Sales were down by 13.87 percent to 2.43 billion in 2015 as the company embarked on aggressive market penetration and expansion strategy with a view to consolidating its share of the market.
Despite the infrastructure deficits such as cost of energy and bad roads that spiral up operating expenses of companies in the country, John Holt has been able to reduce costs as administrative expenses fell by 20.10 percent to N682 million in 2015 from N856 million in 2014.
Distribution expenses were down by 20.30 percent to N856 million.
