BUA Cement Paused after Underwhelming Earnings in Q1
BUA Cement Plc has continued to trade flattish in May after underwhelming earnings performance in the first quarter of 2024. The cement stock market price has been steady at N143.2 since it released its financial scorecard last month.
Transaction volume on the cement stock has been limited versus about 34 million shares outstanding in the market. Ticker: BUACEMENT price surged to N185, its 52 week high, during early rally in 2024. It has printed lower N83.35, its 52 week low on the Nigerian Exchange.
BUA Cement Plc grew revenue by 51.5% from N106.4 billion to N161.1 billion in the first quarter of 2024. However, analysts noted that the company’s revenue growth was eroded by 107.6% surge in cost of sales to N116.2 billion from N55.9 billion.
The major contributors to higher costs of sales materials, energy cost, operation costs, and maintenance service charges. This resulted in a 10.8% year on year decline in gross profit from N50.4 billion in Q1 ’2023 to N44.9 billion in Q1 -2024.
Management’s deliberate effort to reduce overhead costs was successful despite inflation pressure. BUA Cement’s operating expenses dropped from N12.0 billion to N11.5 billion. However, this and the 10.7% decline in other income wasn’t enough to make up for the decline in gross profit made in Q1 2024.
The group’s net finance costs also declined by 58.3% to N1.82 billion in Q1 2024 from N4.36 billion in Q1 2023. The decline reflects a significant year-on-year growth in finance income to N3.06 billion in Q1 2024 from N60.69 million recorded in Q1 2023.
On the other hand, finance costs rose to N4.88 billion from the N4.12 billion recorded in Q1 2023. BUA Cement recorded a huge foreign exchange loss, rising by 687.9% year on year to N10.10 billion in Q1 2024
Consequently, the cement company’s pre-tax profit was down by 40% year on year to N21.29 billion in Q1 2024 from N35.46 billion in Q1 -2023. In the period, tax expenses declined by 61.7% to N3.32 billion in Q1 2024, from N8.66 billion in Q1 2023.
Despite this, BUA Cement underperformed, net income declined by 33.0% to N17.97 billion in Q1 2024 from N26.80 billion in Q1 2023. #BUA Cement Paused after Underwhelming Earnings in Q1
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