The Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) Plc Profit Before Income Tax rose by 57 per cent to N566,665,000 in the year ended December 31, 2020.

This is just as the ground handling company’s profit for the year increased by 84.15 per cent to N482,377 from N220,434 in 2019.

SAHCO also approved dividend of 16.5k per ordinary share of 50k to its shareholders.

These were contained in the Annual Report and Accounts 2020 presented to shareholders at its 11th Annual General Meeting (AGM), held virtually in Lagos on Tuesday.

According to SAHCO, the 57 per cent Profit Before Income Tax was an increase from N360,930,000 in 2019, but its Gross Profit declined by 9.50 per cent to N3,028,693 from N3,346,657 when compared to previous year.

Within the same period, the leading ground handling total assets rose to N23,626,187, indicating 1.84 per cent rise when compared to 2019 with N23,195,569, while its total liabilities in the year under review also increased to N4,426,950 from N4,174,529, representing 6.05 per cent increase within in the year ended December 31, 2020.

However, SAHCO revenue in the year under review declined to N6,981,592 from N7,665,990 in 2019, primarily due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, which crippled the global economies in 2020.

The Chairman, Sifax SAHCO Group, Dr. Taiwo Afolabi, expressed delight at the performance of the ground handling company in the past year, adding that the company extremely performed well despite the outbreak of COVID-19 in the past year.

Afolabi regretted that the aviation sector was one of the most negatively impacted in the past year and lauded the Board of Directors and the management of SAHCO for their loyalty in the past year.

The Chairman also called on the Federal Government to come to the aid of organisations in the sector, lamenting that the impact of COVID -19 in the industry could not be over-emphasised.

“The dividend we are giving now was exactly what we gave last year. Collectively, we all performed well. We decided that we will be focused whatever the case may be or even the circumstances. We pushed ahead and we did it. All our shareholders are happy with us.

“Our expectation for the next financial year is that we want to do better than this year because once the COVID-19 is over, we are prepared for so many other things that would be added to what we are doing. There are so many other businesses that we want to do now and once we have the opportunity, we will do more than what we are doing now,” he added.

Also commenting, the Managing Director of SAHCO, Mr. Basil Agboarumi, said that the management was prepared to increase its revenue in the coming year.

According to him, the management had put in place machineries to ensure the growth of the company, assuring that it would continue to provide the best services to its clients.

On its growing number of clientele in recent years, he attributed this to the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment procured by the company.

“The pandemic has come and it’s going and we know our clients want high class services and performances from us. We are minding of the wants of our clients and we will continue to provide them with the right services.

“Our shareholders should continue to believe in us. For instance, despite the pandemic, we are still repeating the dividend we gave last year. If not for the pandemic, we would have done more. I can assure every investor in SAHCO that they didn’t make a mistake investing in the company. Our expectation is that whatever we give this year, we will be able to give better dividend in the following year.

“Between 2020 and now, SAHCO has invested more than N1.2 billion in equipment. Like I said earlier, we still have more equipment that are on the line that we hope to inject into the system. Our investment for 2021 will be more than what we did the previous year,”Agboarumi assured