Last week, the local bourse recorded gains on all trading sessions as investors cherry-picked bellwether stocks on the back of impressive Q1:2021 earnings release. Consequently, the NSE All-Share Index was up 1.3% w/w with the YTD loss improving to -2.4% as market capitalisation increased to ₦20.6tn.
Recently, Unilever Nigeria Plc (UNILEVER) published its Audited FY-2020 and Unaudited Q1-2021 financial result. According to the reports, Revenue grew marginally in FY-2020, up 2.4% y/y to N62.0bn. In Q1-2021, Revenue surged 45.7% y/y to N19.4bn. However, the company’s revenue improvement remains undermined by huge cost pressures and impairment booking. As a result, UNILEVER recorded a loss of N4.0bn in FY-2020 and N0.5bn in Q1-2021. Below, we update our model estimates for UNILEVER, based on the recently published numbers and provide our expectations for the rest of the year.
Last week, the bears dominated the domestic equities market and consequently, the All-Share index fell 20 bps w/w to settle at 38,808.01 points. As a result, YTD loss worsened to -3.6% while market capitalisation declined ₦25.1bnto ₦20.3tn.
Access Bank Plc (“ACCESS” or “The Bank”) released its FY-2020 results earlier, showing a 14.7%y/y growth in Gross Earnings (GE) to N764.7bn despite the challenging operating environment. PBT and PAT also grew by 12.5% and 12.7% to N125.9bn and N106.0bn, respectively. Similarly, Loans and deposits expanded by 17.8% and 20.3% to N3.6tn and N5.6trn. We update our estimates and review our expectations.
In the previous week, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published a flurry of economic data. Most notably was the release of the CPI and inflation report for Mar-2021. The report estimated that headline inflation increased to 18.17% y/y from 17.3% recorded in Feb-2021. Again, food inflation continues to be the significant inflationary driver, as the food index surged by 23.0% y/y in Mar-2021 from 21.8% in February 2021. On a month-on-month basis, the Headline index increased by 1.56% in Mar-2021, 2bps higher than the rate recorded in February 2021.
Recently, BUA Cement Plc ("BUACEMENT") filed its audited FY-2020 results. Despite substantial cost pressures, the cement maker saw a 19.1% and 19.4% y/y increase in PBT and PAT, respectively, to N78.9bn and N72.3bn. This was primarily driven by volume growth (+13.3% y/y), which supported topline (+19.3% y/y), and lower Net financing expenses (-28.3% y/y) over the period. We review the FY earnings and adjust our expectations for FY-2021 below.
