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Nigeria’s largest listed company Dangote Cement Plc on Tuesday released its audited consolidated and separate financial statements for the full year period ended December 31, 2017.
The results posted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) website show Dangote Cement Plc revenues increased by 30.9 percent to N805.58billion from N615.10billion reported in 2016.
Gross profit increased to N454.29billion from a low of N291.28billion, representing 55.96percent. Profit from operating activities increased to N304.20billion from N182.49billion in 2016, up 66.69percent.
Dangote Cement Plc profit before tax (PBT) increased to N289.59billion from N180.92billion, up 60.1 percent; while after tax profit for the year increased to N204.24billion, representing a 42.98percent rise from N142.85billion in 2016.
“Although unit volumes for Nigeria are still under some pressure, it appears that demand is starting to pick up slowly,” said Tunde Abidoye-led team of analysts at FBNQuest in their March 20 note to investors.
“DangCem’s 2017 PBT came in slightly ahead of consensus 2017 PBT forecast of N280bn. As such, we expect to see upward revisions to consensus 2018 PBT forecasts,” the analysts said in their first reaction to the result.
For the year 2017, the Directors proposed a dividend of N10.50 per share which will be presented for approval at the company’s Annual General Meeting. This will result in a dividend payment of N178.9 billion. Earnings per share, basic and diluted increased to N11.65 from N8.78 in 2016.
On 24th May 2017, a dividend of N8.50 per share (total dividend N144.8 billion) was approved by shareholders to be paid to holders of fully paid ordinary shares in relation to 2016 financial year.
Stock investors at the Nigerian bourse raised further bet on the Dangote Cement Plc shares as its price gained N1, from day open level of N264 to N265, representing an increase of 0.38percent. The market capitalisation of Dangote Cement has increased to N4.5trillion with shares outstanding of 17,040,507,405 units.
This dividend is subject to approval by shareholders at the Annual General Meeting and has not been included as a liability in the consolidated and separate financial statements.
Dangote Cement Plc revenue from sales of cement increased to N805.29billion from N614.93billion in 2016; while revenue from sales of other products increased to N288million from N167million in 2016. The Group is organised into business units by geographical areas in which the Company operates.
Dangote Cement Plc revenue by country shows N547.13billion from Nigeria against N420.07billion in 2016; Ghana revenue decreased to N28.06billion from N32.85billion in 2016; that of South Africa increased to N57.302billion from N41.38billion in 2016.
Also, the group revenue from Ethiopia increased to N54.52billion from N40.07billion in 2016; revenue from Zambia increased to N25.14billion against N16.96billion in 2016; while that from Tanzania increased to N16.65billion from N12.02billion in 2016.
The group revenue from Senegal increased to N28.75billion against N19.93billion in 2016; while from Cameroon the group revenue rose to N43.186billion against N31.19billion in 2016.
The group’s cement production capacity increased to 43.5million tonnes from 42.55million tonnes in 2016. Meanwhile, cement production volume dropped to 21.22million tonnes from 22.53million tonnes in 2016. Cement sales volume dropped to 21.91million tonnes from 23.57million tonnes in 2016.
IHEANYI NWACHUKWU
