The Benin based palm plantation industry finally released its expected audited result last Thursday. The result was below expectation in the market arena. Looking at the first quarter result, shows an increase in percentage of 90.69% in its Profit After Tax and Earnings of 26k, with an increase of 19.22% in its second quarter result of 67k earnings per share. There was a decline in its third quarter unaudited result of 30.75% from N480.3 million the previous year to N332.6million in 2005. Expectation in the market was that the company’s final earnings will be in the region of N1.00, but stood at 68k. The Profit After Tax stood at N340.7million as against N606.3million in 2004 i.e. a decline of 43.81%. The company had consistently paid 50k as dividend for the past three years; the directors are recommending a dividend of 60k per share, which is fair enough compared with the market price.
Having issued a bonus of 1 for 3 last years, the moderate and result oriented insurance company is giving a 10k dividend to its shareholders. Its Profit After Tax stood at N277.8million compared to N180.6million in 2004. With the Earnings per Share of 52k, the company is known to give between 25-70% of its EPS paid out as dividend, this year is an exception. We assume that the company is been conservative because of the recapitalization going on in the insurance sector. Therefore Crusader Insurance is still a good buy at the current market price for longtime hold. Looking at its large shareholding in one of the popular PFA’s.
John Holt Plc- with the re-engineering process that investors thought will reposition and improve the performance of the company has not yielded any positive result. The company has been in the wood for a long time. Its Audited result for the year ended 30th September 2005 shows a Loss After Tax of N115.8million compared with N70million in 2004, which show a decline of 106.75% and Earnings Per Share of –1.63. The directors declared no dividend no bonus.
