Wema Bank Backed Juli Plc Registers 46% Valuation Surge

Wema Bank Backed Juli Plc Registers 46% Valuation Surge

Wema Bank-backed pharmaceutical retailer Juli Plc couldn’t stop its gaining streaks amidst a seesaw movement in the Nigerian Exchange.  According to information from the Exchange, the company’s stock market valuation has surpassed N1.5 billion.

Investors’ attention has been drawn to Juli Plc shares throughout the month due to expectations of better performance in the current year. Juli Plc’s share price surged significantly in the recent week.  Starting at N5.38 at the beginning of the week, the stock market price of the food and drug retailer increased by over 46% to N7.86 per share.

Compared to earlier price points that the MarketForces Africa equity research team tracked, stock buyers now have to fork over more cash to purchase units of Juli Plc shares. Ticker: Juli has been on the rise, and stock analysts have noticed that the ostensibly inexpensive stock is gradually increasing in value. This has happened without many people noticing.

Since the start of the year, the company has been capping gains; at the close of trading on Friday, it was trading at N7.86 kobo, up from as low as N1.22 reported in February, 2024. Details from its books showed that Wema Bank is a major investor in Juli Pharmacy, controlling 30% of the company’s shareholding.

28.63% of Juli Plc shares outstanding are owned by Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, OFR, mni, and 8.53% are held by Midas Investment & Property Limited. It is currently trading through an alternative securities market, meaning that Juli Pharmacy has strong growth potential and could be moved to the NGX growth board based on performance.

Juli Pharmacy’s valuation has surpassed N1.571 billion following its most recent market price re-rating, with approximately 200 million shares outstanding. According to its regulatory filing, the pharmaceutical company’s turnover grew to N288.777 million in 2023.

When compared to the N254.1 million in revenue reported in 2022, this indicates a year-over-year increase of 13.64%. Its gross profit settled at about N96 million in the period, which was 8.5% above N88.461 million in 2022.

The company’s 2023 profit margin was negatively impacted by a sharp rise in sales costs, according to its financial statement that was published on the Nigerian Exchange. Juli Plc’s gross profit margin declined to 33.21% in 2023 from 35% in 2022 as costs of sales accelerated faster than revenue growth.

After taxes, the company lost more than N6.7 million at the end of the year, which was an improvement over the N11.068 million post-tax loss it had suffered a year earlier. A deep dive into the company’s numbers showed that management efforts at reducing overhead have not started to pay off.

The food and drug retailer’s healthy bottom-line performance was negatively impacted by its steep operating expenses. Operating expenses for the company increased by 3% in 2023 to N102.6 million from N99.529 million in 2022. Juli Pharmacy ( Nigeria) Limited was the name of the company when it was founded on September 14, 1972, as a private limited liability company. #Wema Bank Backed Juli Plc Registers 46% Valuation Surge Naira Devaluation Deepens Economic Crisis in Nigeria