Dangote Cement Plc on Tuesday announced its audited results for the year ended December 31, 2017, showing significant improvements and rewarding shareholders with higher dividend. The results released at the stock exchange, showed revenue of N805.6 billion, up by 31 per cent from N615.1 billion in 2016. A breakdown of the report indicated that while sales from the three plants in Nigeria contributed N552.36 billion to the group’s revenue, the balance of N258.44 billion was accounted for by plants in other African countries. Revenue attributable to Nigeria grew by 29.6 percent while that from Pan-African operations rose by 32.5 percent.
Gross profit rose from N291.3 billion in 2016 to N454.3 billion in 2017. Operations expenses rose from N119.3 billion to N155.3 billion, while finance cost soared from N1.6 billion to N16 billion in 2017.
However, profit before tax rose by 60.1 per cent from N180.9 billion to N298.6 billion, while profit after tax grew by 43 per cent to N204.2 billion, from N142.9 billion in 2016. The board has recommended a dividend of N10.50 per share, which translate to N178.9 billion as against a dividend of N8.70 kobo per share that was paid the previous year.
Speaking on the results, Acting Group Chief Executive Officer, Dangote Cement Plc, Joseph Makoju, said: “Dangote Cement turned in a record year with revenues up 31.0 percent to N805.6 billion and EBITDA up by 50.9 percent to N388.1 billion. Although Nigerian volumes were lower in 2017, our Pan-African operations increased volumes by 8.4 per cent and now make up 42 per cent of the Group’s total cement sales, demonstrating the robust diversification of our business.
“We expanded our footprint from eight countries to ten with the opening of new facilities in the Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, while our operations in Cameroon, Senegal and Ethiopia achieved strong sales growth during the year. With total sales volumes of nearly 22 million tonnes, we are by far the leading manufacturer of cement in sub-Saharan Africa.â€
Commenting on the results, analysts at FBN Quest said the dividend is in line with their forecast of N10.10. “Management has proposed a dividend of N10.35 per share, which is up 24 per cent and broadly in line with our and consensus dividend per share (DPS) forecasts of N10.10 and N10.70 respectively. The DPS imply a yield and pay-out ratio of 3.9 per cent and 90.4 per cent respectively,†they said.
According to them, although unit volumes for Nigeria are still under some pressure, it appears that demand is starting to pick up slowly.
