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Greek multimillionaire businessman John Coumantaros is on track to receive a dividend of N5.58 billion ($13.45 million) from his stake in Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, a Nigerian agro-allied company, by Sept. 8, after the company reported a nine-percent growth in its profit at the end of 2022.
Coumantaros, the chairman of Flour Mills of Nigeria, who ranks as one of Nigeria’s wealthiest investors, owns a significant 63.34-percent stake in the agro-allied group through Excelsior Shipping Company Limited, a shipping company set up by his late father, George Coumantaros.
The N5.58-billion ($13.45 million) dividend will be paid electronically into his bank account on Sept. 8 from the group’s retained earnings of N111.1 billion ($267.5 million) at the end of its 2022 fiscal year.
The news comes after the group reported a nine-percent increase in profit from N25.72 billion ($62 million) in 2021 to N28.02 billion ($67.5 million) at the end of its fiscal year in 2022 despite a 51-percent increase in revenue from N771.6 billion ($1.86 billion) to N1.16 trillion ($2.8 billion).
The slower earnings growth can be attributed to a 59-percent increase in direct production costs, which outpaced the 51-percent increase in revenue, as well as an increase in administrative and finance costs during the period.
Despite operating environment disruptions, the group showed resilience and strong performance across its food, agro-allied, and support segments, delivering top-line growth of 57 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 and 51-percent year-on-year on the back of strong volume growth.
Because of the company’s strong financial performance, the board recommended a final dividend of N2.15 ($0.00518) per share, for a total payout to shareholders of N8.8 billion ($21.2 million), a 30-percent increase over the N6.76 billion ($16.3 million) that it paid stockholders in 2021.
