The world’s fourth-largest oil and gas company in its annual report for 2017 said that the revenue generated as at December 2017 stood at ₦288 billion in comparison with ₦290 billion in 2016, representing a decline of 0.99 percent.
e results showed its earnings per share significantly declined by 46 percent at N23.62 kobo in 2017 against N43.48 kobo reported in 2016, while its dividend cover rose to 1.39 as against 2.56 times of 2016 which was 207 percent improvement.
However, the company’s shareholders’ funds appreciated by 20 percent, closing at N28 billion in 2017 against N24 billion in the corresponding period of 2016.
According to the report, last year was an arduous year for the company, citing economic recession in the country and its consequent contraction of the downstream market and scarcity of petrol due to high landing cost compared to the template as the major reasons for the drop in revenue.
Other reasons were given by the company include foreign exchange scarcity hindering the importation of diesel and aviation fuel and high financial costs due to increase in bank lending interest rates & reduction of our credit terms for petrol purchase.
However, the company stated in the report that the turnover was considered stable and the profit margin recorded was the second highest ever in the company’s his- tory. Its lubricants production capacity increased by 33 percent with the addition of two high-speed filling machines in Koko, Delta State, and Lagos, as well as the solarization of the Lagos blending plant and development of Power Purchase, offers for industrial use.
Its market share in lubricants also increased to 28.1 percent in 2017 from 25.7 percent in 2016.
The report said a final dividend of N14 was proposed for the year ended 31 December 2017 and a general meeting was scheduled for June 2018.
Stanislas Mittelman, chairman of Total Nigeria, said Total commenced the year in a recession (the first in 25 years) with inflation at 18.9 percent and which saw a near 40 percent devaluation of the naira.
He stated that the state of the foreign exchange market had a serious adverse impact on the company’s ability to do business and imposed severe costs on key sectors of the economy, which further cascaded into all areas of the economy.
