“Unquestionably, Mr Lawal who is more known as an Upstream successful executive in the Oil and gas industry certainly delivered exceptional numbers under his leadership as CEO/MD of Eterna Plc. “
….Transformed the company and took its revenue growth to N313 Billion in Fiscal Year 2024
… returned the company to profitability:
Eterna Plc. returned to profitability after recording a revenue of N313 billion in the fiscal year that ended in December 2024. The performance is so outstanding in all major indices, it is difficult to ignore these numbers especially among listed Oil & Gas companies.
After recording losses in the last three years, Eterna Plc’s substantial revenue growth indicates a successful turnaround, show casing the company’s resilience and adaptability under the leadership of Mr Abiola Lukman Lawal, as the managing director and chief executive officer. Mr Lawal must have also worked effectively with the board and his management team to achieve such an outstanding result that ensured consistent supply and availability of products to deliver such stellar performance. Unquestionably, Mr Lawal who is more known as an Upstream successful executive in the Oil and gas industry certainly delivered exceptional numbers under his leadership as CEO/MD of Eterna Plc.
The top line performance was simply outstanding as company’s revenue surged by 71% from N183.2 billion in 2023 to N313.6 billion in 2024, driven by increased prices of petroleum products and assurance of product supplies across its retail distribution network through strategic partnerships including with NNPC.
This massive achievement in revenue growth has clearly boosted investor confidence attracting more investment and positively impacting the company’s stock performance which has essentially tripled over the last one year from N14 per share to above N40/per share at its peak.
The revenue growth & return to profitability suggests that Eterna Plc has optimized its operations, effectively managing costs and resources to achieve improved financial results compared to the last few years.
The company’s past losses were reversed in the fiscal year which ended in December 2024, its previous losses resulted in the company recording decline in its revenue for the past few years. In the year under review, the company’s recorded N313B in revenue must have been a welcome and celebrated achievement by its stakeholders, especially the shareholders who have never seen this type of numbers in the history of the company.
Specifically, it recorded N313, 615, 914 as against N 182,139 billion that was recorded in the year 2023. From a revenue perspective, the last time the company had it so close to what was achieved in 2024 was 2018 when it recorded N251.8 billion as revenue. But since then, its revenue profile has been on the downward trend until the situation began to change in 2024 which coincidentally also represents a turnaround under Mr Lawal’s leadership as he became CEO in 2024. It is also interesting that Mr Lawal who is mostly known to be much more of an upstream executive because he has spent most of his career in the upstream sector, was able to lead Eterna to such an amazing positive turnaround within a very short period of time.
The gross profit for the 2024 was a remarkable N39.9 billion as against the N16.9 billion in 2023. Its operating profit stood at 27.9 billion in 2024 financial year as against the 2023 result which was N7.9 billion. Again, a remarkable achievement in positive growth more than tripling (300% plus growth) the Operating Profit from the previous year.
Profit/loss before tax in 2024 was N4.5 billion as solid profit as compared to N11.97 billion in loss in 2023. While the profit after tax recorded in 2024 was N1.35 billion contrast to a loss after tax of N9.43 billion in 2023.
Our further investigation revealed that the fortune of the company changed for good dramatically under the management team that was led by Mr Abiola Lawal, a very dynamic and seasoned Oil & Gas executive who assumed the leadership of the company as its managing director in 2024. This remarkable turnaround and achievement earned Mr Lawal the prestigious Business Day Top 25 CEOs in Nigeria award due to the spectacular turnaround in the financial numbers of eterna within a very short period of time. According to our analysis the shareholders were also rewarded massively in terms of the increase in stock price from avg stock price of N14 in 2023 to a value that more than double in 2024, The irony is that eterna who has shown a recent history of CEO turnover with 3 CEOs the last 4 years could also not hang on to this proven CEO as Mr Lawal bowed out from the company in February 2025 and handed over to Mr Olumide Adeosun. The company and the board in the official released statement acknowledged Mr Lawal’s major achievements and contribution to eterna Plc as MD/CEO.
Further Breakdown in Performance:
Out of the N313 billion revenue that was recorded as revenue, Retails and Industrial accounted for N272.4 billion while lubricants/ chemicals were responsible for N41.4 billions.
The market clearly noticed the rejuvenation of the eterna brand under Mr Lawal’s leadership as CEO as we noticed a number of strategic accomplishments including in the Aviation business take off with the commissioning of its Juhi-2 Jet Fuel Depot as well as positive performance in the Lubricant & Chemicals business segment. The overall recorded revenue growth under leadership of Mr Lawal as CEO represents 71% growth from 2023 as well as its highest ever revenue figure in the company history. The growth in the gross margin for 2024 which stood at N39.6B was up 134% compared to 2023. Again, this is a remarkable achievement for eterna.
The company also seemed to have done very well in its retail operation as it seems to have taken maximum advantage of the pre-subsidy removal opportunities to sell petroleum products in its retail stations nationwide as the eterna brand seems to have rejuvenated under the leadership of the management and the board of the company led by Mr Lawal.
It therefore achieved profit after tax (PAT) of N1.34Bn by the end of 2024. This represents a major reversal from its loss position of N9.43B loss of the previous year. The fact is that the last five-years have been particularly challenging for Eterna Plc. Three out of the five years was totally not good as it made serious losses, culminating in the record loss after tax of N9.43Bn in 2023. Therefore the 2024 turnaround positive numbers delivered is a huge accomplishment under difficult downstream sector changes.
On the backdrop of the above, industry players noted that Mr. Lawal on assuming the position of the managing director and chief executive officer of the company in 2024 worked with the board and the management team under his leadership to craft a vision & a winning strategy for eterna Plc’s recovery and future growth along four pillars, namely
Balance Sheet Repair, Revenue Growth, Improved Margins and Diversification into new energies for future revenue growth.
Revenue Growth: Eterna achieved a revenue of N313Bn in 2024, representing 71% growth from 2023 as well as its highest ever revenue figure.
Improved Margins: Gross margin stood at N39.6Bn, up 134% from 2023 To reverse the previous year’s losses, the management team led by Mr Abiola Lawal also adopted some important strategies that helped lift the performance of the company during the year under review, 2024 including a healthier balance sheet less burdened by legacy debt compared to the previous year 2023.
Other success during the year under review includes a successful commissioning of JUHI 2 and commenced into-plane operations with a very visible and successful commissioning of the consortium depot by the honourable minister of aviation Mr Festus Keyamo, SAN. eterna Plc commissioned the Joint User Hydrant Installation 2 (JUHI-2) to activate its long-term investment in Jet-A1 fuel distribution along with its partners. It is Nigeria’s largest airside jet fuel depot with a storage capacity of 15 million litres by the MM! Airport in Lagos.
Eterna Plc manufactures and sells lubricating oils and petrochemicals; the Company imports and sells bulk petroleum products including Premium Motor Spirit (“PMS”), Automotive Gas Oil (“AGO”), Aviation Turbine Fuel (“ATK”), Base Oils , The Group’s activities also include Gas Distribution and Marketing of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (” LPG”), Trading in Crude Oil and other refined petroleum products.
