…made significant investments in the last five years
11PLC has proposed a dividend of N8.50K for its shareholders for the fiscal year of 2022.
According to the summary of the result submitted to NASD, there will not be any bonus for its shareholders.
It has also slated Monday, April 24, 2023, as the date for the closure of its register. While Friday, April 21, 2023, would be its qualifications date.
The payment of dividend has been scheduled for Thursday, May 25, 2023. This will however be preceded by the Annual General Meeting (AGM)of the company which comes up on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, at Abuja Continental Hotels, Abuja.
Commenting on the performance of the company at an interactive session with journalists, the managing director of 11plc, Tunji Oyebanji, said that the company has performed well for the shareholders despite the harsh economic conditions under which it operated in the year under review.
He, however, said that there is always room for improvement, stating further, that, the company had a relatively good year as some of the investments that were made have started to yield fruits that the whole idea of those investments was meant for.
“We believe that with the size of our company and the investment made so far, we should be doing much better than what we are doing. This, really, is the case.”
“Like, I said, the choice before everyone is that you position yourself for what is coming future. 11plc has taken a positive view that no matter how tough and challenging the year may be, it will succeed. For the lubricant, for instance, competition is very stiff and tough, and purchasing power has been badly affected by not only the crisis but also by inflation and so on and so forth. However, we have been able to hold our heads above water.”
“There is no doubt that we can improve our performance in the years ahead.
We also pride ourselves on a high level of efficiency. People come to our loading terminals to load products because they know that when they come they are always attended to promptly. We are very efficient, the truck drivers leave the depot on time when compared to our competitors.
Our lubricant is highly respected within the industry, even when things are very tough, customers still exhibit high level of loyalty because they know they will always buy high-quality product from 11PLC.”
Speaking further on the transformation that has taken place since the last five years that 11plc has acquired Mobil Nigeria plc.
He said on April 1st, 2017, ExxonMobil sold its 60 percent equity holdings in Mobil Nigeria plc to a new investor, NIPCO Investment Limited.
Tunji Oyebanji said between 2017 to now, a lot had happened.
To him, the journey has been amazing as most of the facilities installed in the company were not there before the new owners took over.
Such facilities like the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plant which is 8000 metric tons and which was constructed with an amount in the region of N5 billion. There are also massive storage tanks either for Petrol or Aviation Turbine Kerosene, so also a new line in its lube plant.
Many of the machinery that was in operation before the advent of the new owner has been improved upon.
The managing director likened what happened to the acquired company to the situation of 60-year-old man whose heart had started failing, and he had to undergo a heart transplant. After doing that, he now has a new heart in his body, and he started to function like a young person. “This is how I can describe what has happened to this company.”
This, he said, has brought tremendous development to the company. He said the company has witnessed improved performance in all strata of its business lines, especially across the product lines.
He said: “We felt it is important for the management of the company to interact with journalists that cover the industry. So that the management can show some of the things it is doing, in order that the journalists can be on the same page with them.”
He said by all indices when NNPC is looking at the major players it is interacting with within Nigeria, there is no doubt that 11plc would be listed among such top operators in the industry.
The relationship between the company and ExxonMobil, he said, continues to blossom as the company still trades under the name Mobil. This was based on an agreement the company reached with ExxonMobil at the point when it was exiting the ownership of Mobil Oil Nigeria plc.
He said this is why 11plc is still the sole distributor of ExxonMobil lubricants in Nigeria and also has Mobil trademark for the sales of its fuel products.
“All the investment that has been made in the last two years has been to upgrade the company and bring out more values.”
The new owner of the company has been very bullish about Nigeria and has therefore invested significantly in raising the profile of the company. The company is expected to perform very strongly in the years to come, he said.
The 11plc boss said with the investment, the company is well poised with whatever development that may come from the incoming government that would be formed after May 29, 2023.
According to him, the management of the company believes that there would be policy changes, but they are of the view that with the investment that has been made, the company is well-positioned to take advantage of whatever policy changes that may come or changes in the economic environment.
On the amount invested by the company in the last five years, the managing director said, he would not like to mention any specific figure because it is in competition with others, “but, when you look at those investments, for instance, the new lube filling line for lubricant, it cost over a million dollars, the gas storage facilities cost more than N5 billion. He said because of the steel components that are involved, it is difficult for the company to place figures on the investment. Those steels come from the Russian – Ukraine axis, so their prices have skyrocketed. However, the investment runs into billions of naira.
Counterfeiting
The company made a lot of investments on its packaging. It has what is called tamper-proof seals that have been introduced on its lubricant bottles. He said once the bottle is opened the seal cannot be fixed back again.
“There is also a seal on top of the cover when you open it like foil. For the drums, there is a seal that has unique numbers, it is put on top of the drum. It is a small chain, and all of those seals have unique numbers so anybody that buys the drum from the company without that seal can easily discover that it is a counterfeit product.
It also works closely with Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), to identify people that are counterfeiting their products and get law enforcement agents to arrest them.