News in brief:
– Nestlé Nigeria’s stock value has plummeted by over 29% in 2024, primarily due to significant losses and rising costs.
– The company’s struggles reflect broader economic challenges facing Nigerian food companies.
Nigerian food giant, Nestle, has lost more than 29% of its stock value on the NGX trading platform in 2024. According to data crunched by our analysts, the company has not successfully outrun its first half of the year’s woes.
Nestle Nigeria PLC had begun the year trading its stock at ₦1,196 but the price started dropping by the end of January and has been in steady decline since then. The latest price of the company’s stock in the last week of October 2024 was ₦885.
By September, the company had suffered a pre-tax loss of ₦255.38 billion, an increase of more than ₦198 billion when compared to its losses (₦56.65 billion) from the same period last year. Nestle’s net finance cost had risen by 147% as well, from ₦148.24 billion to ₦366.22 billion.
Meanwhile, its revenue had grown by only 68% in the same period and gross profit was 29% higher than the corresponding period in 2023. Other expenses like cost of sales, administrative expenses, and finance costs rose by more than 100%.
The company’s foreign currency transactions, like translation of denominated balances, accounted for most of its net finance costs, leading to a loss of ₦127.45 billion.
Despite the increase in the prices of Nestle Nigeria’s consumer goods, the company is still obviously struggling. Another reason is the increasing cost of the raw materials it uses in production, this has gone from ₦116.83 billion last year to ₦251.12 billion this year.
Nestle’s stock is not the only one suffering from the economic downturn ongoing in Nigeria. As this article shows, food companies are struggling to keep their stock value up.
