By Nse Anthony-Uko
Forte Oil Plc, at the weekend, released its financial statements for the first nine months of this year, ended September 30, 2017 with a profit of N5.07 billion.
In the financial results released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the company posted a rise of 81.07 per cent in its profit for the period to N5.07 billion compared with N2.8 billion recorded a year ago.
In the financial statements, Forte Oil said its profit before tax as at September 2017 stood at N5.59 billion against N5..63 billion 12 months ago. Furthermore, the gross profit stood at N16.9 billion in the period under review against N15.5 billion in the corresponding period of 2016.
However, the company recorded a 20 percent drop in its revenue from N121 billion as at September 30, 2016 to N96.9 billion this year.
In addition, the oil firm said during the period under review, its foreign exchange loss was N20.2 million versus N198.5 million a year ago, while bad and uncollectible debt closed at N222.9 million in September 2017 in contrast to N7.2 million 12 months ago.
Its total asset stood at N148.16 billion from N140.76 billion in 2016, while total liabilities rose to N102.42 billion from N97.42 billion.
Recently, the board of Forte Oil notified the NSE Of its strategic decision to put the Company’s proposed offering by way of Book Building approved by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on hold pending the conclusion of an ongoing corporate restructuring with respect to maximising the emerging opportunities in the Nigerian energy sector which will be to the ultimate benefit of all its stakeholders.
According to the Comapny, we have five pillars strategies going forward. We want to concentrate on high margin products. We want to focus on lubricants. We have been working on our LPG as we improve our facility in Abuja, Kano and Apapa. We want to strengthen our balance sheet. We want long term capital so that interest expenses will come down. Diversification is part of our strategy to boost out revenue base. We want to buy upstream assets; we will focus on mergers and acquisition within the space available. We have been growing our market share organically. We are looking at opportunity to grow the retail outlet through inorganic strategy.