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.