Uganda Clays Limited has issued a profit warning, revealing that it made a loss for the half-year January – June 2023, according to the Company’s unaudited financial statements.
“The loss position is mainly due to a shortage of products that was occasioned by machinery breakdowns. This was exacerbated by the unfavorable macroeconomic conditions, characterized by high inflation and the depreciation of the Ugandan shilling against the Euro, which impacted the company’s overall operating and production costs, thus negatively impacting the bottom line,” says Eng. Martin Kasekende, the Chairman of Uganda Clays Board.
“Accordingly, the shareholders and the general public are advised to exercise caution when dealing in the Company’s securities.”
Uganda Clays manufactures baked clay building products in Uganda, operating plants in Kajjansi and Kamonkoli.
It should be noted that shareholders of Uganda Clays Ltd received half a Shilling for every share they hold, as a return on their investment for the year ended December 2022.
In the Post Annual General Meeting notice issued to the markets a few months ago, the company secretary, Lex Advocates, said the company will proceed to pay the final dividend which was declared and approved by the shareholders.
This means each shareholder received receive three times less than they received for 2021 of 1.5 Shillings for every share held, which was also a record high for the company in years. It also means that an investor with 1,000 shares walked away with 500 Shillings for the year 2022.
UCL is divided into 900,000,000 shares, meaning the total dividend is 450 million Shillings.
The fall in the dividend was mainly due to the fall in profit for the year, but also the need for cash by the company to expand production and pay off debts. Profits for the year fell by almost half to Shillings 2.44 billion from Shillings 5.92 billion registered in 2021, a scenario attributed to lower revenues.
Uganda Clays Limited was listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) in January 2000 and is currently the 15th most valuable stock with a market capitalization of 13.5 billion Shillings or about 0.077 percent of the USE equity market.
