Leading cement
manufacturer, Dangote Cement Plc has declared its 2013 financials recording an
upsurge in its Nigerian sales volume to the tune of 13.3million tonnes leading
to a 40.6 per cent increase in profit before tax over the previous year.
The company declared a
profit before tax of N190.8 billion for the year.
The audited results of the
company announced in Lagos indicated that the pre-tax profit is 40.6 per cent
higher than that of the previous year while consolidated revenue grew up to
₦386.2bn, representing an increase of 29.4 per cent.
While the results celebrated
the increase in the Company’s sales volume, it showed further that total
Nigerian cement market grows by 15.6% to nearly 21.2 million tonnes.
Dangote cement attributed
the increased sales volume to its direct-to-customer deliveries strategy and
described it as proving highly successful accounting for more than 50 per cent
of sales, with its Obajana plant sales volumes up 37.2% and Ibese up by 40.4
per cent.
Consequently, the company
recommended a dividend increase of N7.0 per ordinary share as against N3 paid
out in 2012 an increase of 133 per cent.
Dangote Cement’s Group
Chief Executive, Devakumar Edwin expressed satisfaction at the performance of
the company saying the impressive run was as a result strategies deployed of
sound management of the prevailing economic situation.
He said; “Dangote Cement
made excellent progress in 2013. As the Nigerian cement market grew by a strong
15.6% we managed even better growth of 28.2%, with our revenues increasing by
29.4% to ₦386.2bn. Our direct-delivery strategy is proving very popular with
customers and I am pleased to report that direct-to-customer deliveries now
account for more than half of our sales.
“We increased our margins
despite continuing disruption to our gas supply and believe that the gas
distribution infrastructure will be more robust in 2014, enabling us to improve
our margins even further. At the same time we are looking at ways to diversify
our fuel supplies to mitigate the impact of any future disruption and reduce
the cost of using alternative fuels to gas.
“Our financial strength has
allowed us to increase our dividend by 133% to ₦7.0 per share and the coming
year will see our new factories opening across Africa as we begin to deliver on
our promise to become Africa’s leading cement producer, generating strong and
sustainable returns for our shareholders.”
Dangote Cement, which is
Africa's leading cement producer is a fully integrated quarry-to-customer
producer with production capacity of 20.25 million tonnes in Nigeria with three
in the countrya and plans to expand in 13 other African countries with new
operations beginning to come on stream across the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Group plans to have
around 60 million tonnes of production, grinding and import capacity in
Sub-Saharan Africa by 2016.
Dangote Cement's Obajana
plant in Kogi state, Nigeria, is the largest in Africa with 10.25mta capacity
across three lines and a further 3mta capacity currently being built.
Edwin stated that Dangote
Cement would be investing several billion dollars to build manufacturing plants
and import terminals across Africa. Current plans are for integrated or
grinding plants in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Republic of Congo, Liberia, Senegal,
South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia, as well as Ivory Coast and Ghana, and
import/packing facilities in Ghana and Sierra Leone.
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