Julius Berger PLC, the Nigerian construction giant, released its 2025 interim result some weeks ago, and investors have welcomed it with positive sentiments so far, with the share price rising from ₦152 range mid-January to over ₦249 as at the time of publishing this article, an over 63% jump. Beyond the numbers which we will dissect in a bit, it reinforced learnings we had written about in one of our previous articles- when you invest in a stock you are not just investing in a ticker symbol like a gambler, you are actually investing in fractional ownership of a company, and it behoves you to regularly check and keep abreast on the status of the company you have invested in to be sure that your investment thesis still stands true or otherwise, in order to determine your next line of actions- Buy, Hold, Sell. Check out the article here: Before You Buy a Stock: What Every Retail Investor Must Understand 1.
Before looking at their 2025 result, let's step back a little. In 2024, the group posted ₦566 billion in revenue against ₦443 billion in the previous year. Revenue history from 2020 to 2024 is shown below as extracted from JB's 2024 Annual report.
Profit before tax (PBT) grew from ₦22 billion in 2023 to ₦29.5 billion in 2024. PBT history from 2020 to 2024 is shown below as extracted from JB's 2024 Annual report.
Profit after tax grew from ₦12.5 billion in 2023 to ₦15.5 billion in 2024, translating to Earnings per share growth from ₦7.78 in 2023 to ₦9.54 in 2024 as shown below. Profit after tax as a percentage of revenue was 2.7% in 2024 compared to 2.8% in 2023 which has been a concern for investors, in addition to its asset-heavy nature of business.
Dividend per share history shows improvement from ₦0.40 in 2020 (the year of the pandemic shutdown) to ₦3.25 in 2024.
Julius Berger had always been majorly into delivering construction solutions for over 50 years, with some investments in subsidiaries. However, on the 23rd of September 2020 the company notified the NGX of its intention to diversify into agro-processing, majorly of cashew nuts to support the continued success of the group, after board approval on the 22nd of September 2020.
In addition to the above, on the 20th of December, 2024, the company notified the NGX of its resolution to consolidate on its construction solutions expertise by establishing, incorporating and registering a wholly owned subsidiary company in Benin Republic to carry on the business of planning and construction of all kinds of civil and engineering works in the Republic, enabling JB to be responsive to the emerging business opportunities in Benin Republic and environs.
In an interesting turn of events, Julius Berger on the 24th of September 2025, informed the NGX of its decision to lease out its loss making Cashew processing facilities "upon mutually agreed terms to Eko Organic Food Industries Limited, whose core business would ensure the continued relevance of Julius Berger and its strategic intent to take value from opportunities in Agro-processing". This, it said, was "consequent upon the strategy of the company to be more thematic to its core business by strengthening its capacity in Nigeria and exploring opportunities regionally and globally".
Now back to JB PLC's 2025 result. Revenue grew by 34% to close at ₦760 billion, Gross profit grew by 69% to close at ₦119.5 billion, Operating Profit grew by a stunning 176% to close at ₦34.9 billion, Profit before tax grew by 55% to ₦45.9 billion, and Profit after tax grew by over 108% to close at ₦31.1 billion, translating to Earnings per share of ₦19.28. Profit after tax as a percentage of revenue was 4.1% in 2025 compared to 2.7% in 2024, signifying improvement in profitability. Interest/Investment income (primarily comprising returns on fixed deposits with commercial banks) came in at ₦16 billion in 2025, compared to ₦20.2 billion in 2024 and ₦6.9 billion in 2023.
From the notes to the 2025 results, JB having leased out their Agro-processing facility and expanded to Benin republic, Africa contributed ₦712 billion to revenue, Europe ₦48 billion, while Diversification (comprising of the business unit Cashew Processing in Epe, Lagos and the Group's expanded Construction business into regional markets) ₦17.9 billion, compared to ₦3.4 billion in 2024. However, in 2025 Diversification efforts led to operating loss of ₦9.8 billion (₦562 million in 2024). The Management will have to explain to shareholders how the leasing out of their Agro-processing facility instead of running it directly would translate to better returns for shareholders and eliminate the losses going forward, as shareholders had expected that to take effect post the notification made to the NGX in September 2025.
As we said at the beginning of the article, an investor in the shares of a company should regularly check and keep abreast on the status of the company they have invested in to be sure that their investment thesis still stands true or otherwise, in order to determine their next line of actions- Buy, Hold, Sell. Savvy investors with interest in Julius Berger would have viewed the notification of leasing out their Agro-processing facility as a signal to improving profitability since they were shedding off one of their loss making arms, and used it as an input to their investment thesis to determine whether to accumulate their position.
When asked during the 2025 Investors Forum Presentation held in June 2025 about why JB's return ratios are usually low (ROE, ROA, ROIC, ROCE) and plans to make them more attractive going forward, the Management responded "some of those ratios are diluted and very difficult to compare because of the inflated base values in those matrices. For example our equity has been inflated by Foreign currency translation reserves which are solely a result of the weak exchange rate... those base values are inflated by those factors, and therefore make our ratios appear to be small. The different ways of looking at those ratios for example is looking without those factors then they look much better. In addition we want these ratios to be attractive and so we tirelessly work on ways of improving them- Digitalization, optimizing our topline, optimizing our cost, cost efficiency, and therefore increasing our profit margin, which then automatically will result in better ratios".
Meanwhile, shareholding pattern as at 31 December, 2025 is as shown below:
Based on publicly available information Goldstone Estates Ltd is associated with Mike Adenuga Jnr of Globacom and family, NeptuneHill Company Ltd is associated with Habibat Akinmade and Joshua Oluwadunsin Oyekan, Watertown Energy Ltd with Ernest Azudialu Obiejesi of Nestoil, and Ibile Holdings Ltd with the Lagos state Government.
From their notes to the interim result, 2026 is already looking like a great year at least in terms of revenue. Investors will be on the look out to see if JB PLC can sustain its growth going forward, and how those topline numbers will translate to better earnings and returns for them. We also expect that Julius Berger's next Annual General meeting will be broadcast live (virtually) to afford shareholders who are not physically present at the venue the opportunity to participate. We had written a previous article on their last Annual General meeting and how shareholders who were unable to make it to Abuja physically were locked out of the meeting in this age and time of all sorts of virtual meeting platforms. We expect that the 2026 Annual General Meeting will be different and will provide for active online participation — not merely enabling shareholders to observe proceedings, but also granting them the ability to vote on resolutions.
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If you are new to investing in the stock market and do not know where to start, check out this article: How to Start Investing in the Nigerian Stock Market: A Guide for Beginners.
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