Covid-19 Lockdown Slashes Julius Berger’s Profit By N7.4bn

Nigeria’s biggest construction firm, Julius Berger Nigeria has seen its profit dropped N7.4bn to N1.35bn in the 2020 financial period.

The company disclosed this in its unaudited financial statement sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The country’s largest contractor had in 2019 declared Profit After Tax of N8.75bn.

The Abuja headquartered firm’s revenue also fell to N242.45bn, against the N266.4bn it recorded in the twelve months of 2019.

The company blamed the negative impact of the Coronvirus pandemic for the massive drop in profit.

“The whole world and therefore the whole group is affected by the Covid-19 which started to impact on its operation as from the middle of March 2020,” it said.

The company said due to government lockdown directive, its businesses were down in March last year.

The construction firm said, “After a phased and gradual easing of the lockdown, operations across all Julius Berger sites and subsidiaries have resumed.”

According to the firm, the pandemic affected the Group’s ability to receive payments as and when due, which has resulted in significant increase in its credit risk.

Berger said it was working to ensure business continuity and protection of its earnings from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.