By Steven Godfrey Mkweteza
The Malawi stock exchange_listed, Illovo sugar Malawi plc has approved an interim final dividend payout of 2,854 billion, representing 4.00 per share in the first six months year ending February 2021.
This represent an increase from 1,427 billion it paid out to its shareholders in the same period last year.
Presenting the company’s financial performance to its investors in Blantyre recently, the managing director for the country’s oldest sugar processor, Lekani Katandula said the company has also posted a strong set of results with a whopping net profit of 199% increase to 6.1 billion in the first year ending February 2021.
Katandula, while acknowledging the negative effects of covid-19 pandemic, mentioned the cost control measures instituted during the period as some of the factors necessitated the company to register an increase in the profit after tax margin.
However, despite the successful results, Katandula says the uncertain and challenging operating environment as a result of the effects of covid 19 pandemic partly affected the operations of most of the businesses and the company.
“The year indeed was party challenging due to operating environment and subdued economic activity due to the impact of the pandemic which has affected the economy,” said Katandula.
Among others, the managing director pointed out that poor logistical parameters negatively impacted deep water export sales to European countries such as Brazil and United States of America (USA).
“This made the world sugar prices to remain very low and and influx of illegally imported sugar due to price disparity, ” said Katandula.
The consolidated interim financial reports from the year ended 2020 further, showed that domestic sales volumes increased with 18% from 79 export sales volumes of 17% decrease to 59 KT.
The statement Indicate that domestic sakes pricing impacted by cheap illegal imports and post covid 19.
The summary of statements of the said ending year also indicated that the company company recorded an increased revenue of 74 billion kwacha, representing a 1% increase as compared to the same period last year.
In his sentiment, one of the shareholders Frank Harawa, hailed the company for making significant dividends for the first time in years.
Harawa however, advised the company to explore measures to ensure that it is resilient to the further impact of covid 19 pandemic.
