Forte Oil Plc., a leading player in the downstream sector (Petroleum products marketing, distribution and retailing) of Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry, released its first-half result for the 2019 financial year to the investing public on Wednesday, 31st July 2019.
The result showed an impressive improvement from the corresponding period in 2018, as the group recorded a 33.89% increase in Revenue to ₦82.8bn in H1’19 from ₦61.8bn in H1’18. This was driven by a 35% increase in the Fuels business (white products & ATK) to ₦74.3bn and a 25.6% rise in its Lubricants & Greases business to ₦8.4bn.
Gross Profit of the firm declined by 1.7% to ₦5.6bn owing to increased Cost of Sales which rose by 37.5% to ₦77.2bn in H1’19.
Despite this, the firm posted a 1387% surge in Profit After Tax (PAT) to ₦5.5bn as against ₦366.6mn in the corresponding period of 2018. This was majorly as a result of a 267.1% increase in Other Income to ₦3.5bn compared to ₦950.1mn in H1’18 (resulting from the disposal of subsidiaries – Amperion Power Distribution Company Limited, Forte Upstream Services Limited and AP Oil and Gas Ghana), coupled with a 719.4% increase in finance income to ₦4.5bn compared to ₦543.4mn in H1’18.
As a result of the above, the firm’s EPS grew to ₦4.16 in H1’19 as against ₦0.28 in H1’18.
