PZ Nigeria Rises to Highest on Record on Profit: Lagos Mover

PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc (PZ), a consumer products manufacturer, touched a record high after it said first-half profit almost doubled.

The stock gained as much as 9 percent to 35 naira, the highest price on record on a closing basis, before retreating to 32.20 naira by 1:08 p.m. in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. A close at this will be its highest on a closing basis since Aug. 16, 2011. About 92 percent of the three-month daily average traded, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Net income for the six months through November jumped to 1.5 billion naira ($9.5 million) from 786 million naira a year earlier, the Lagos-based company said in a statement published on the website of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Revenue fell to 31 billion naira from 32.3 billion naira.

PZ’s sales “were broadly in line” with estimates, Lagos- based FBN Capital said today in an e-mailed note to clients. Margins were boosted by a 29 percent decline in the price of crude palm oil, a major raw material for its products, according to the Lagos-based brokerage. This compensated “to a large extent” for the impact on sales of higher fuel prices with the partial end of subsidies, the Islamist insurgency in the north and the floods that swept large parts of the country, it said.

PZ shares have advanced 15 percent this year, compared with a 13 percent rise in the Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index.

To contact the reporter on this story: Vincent Nwanma in Lagos at vnwanma@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dulue Mbachu at dmbachu@bloomberg.net