Ahead of a July 25, 2017 release of its final results for the year ended 31 May 2017, PZ Cussons Plc, the Manchester, UK based global conglomerate Thursday announced that its Nigerian business operations were trading relatively well.
Analysts who immediately took a liking to this suggested that the PZ Cussons business units in Nigeria are expected to make significant contributions to the manufacturer’s global results when they are finally released next month.
The company issued a global statement in London in which it noted that the board was pleased that the overall performance of the group for the year ended had been in line with expectations.
Although exact figures were not given, holding out until July 25, the company said the global balance sheet remained strong with the company generating cash for the period under review in line with analysts and board expectations.
The company said its strong group balance sheet was well placed to enable it pursue new opportunities as they arose. Analysts said this was positive and represents a clear pointer to a possible aggressive pursuit of expansion in the next financial year.
But specifically on its Nigerian operations, it noted that there were positive activities across all its trading lines. “In Nigeria, all business units across personal care, home care, electricals and food & nutrition have continued to trade relatively well,” it said in the statement.
The company, while acknowledging the improvements in liquidity in Nigeria during the second half of the financial year under review, said the availability of dollars remained a challenge, adding that, “availability of US dollars at interbank rate remains low resulting in the need to continue accessing secondary market.”
Across the different region of its operations, the Group noted that strength and agility of its brand portfolio were underpinning its performance as new products launched were performing well.
Even in the group’s smaller markets such as Poland and Greece, the statement said performance was also in line with expectations.
