Dangote Cement to pay shareholders N144.8bn final dividend, as revenue hits N615bn

 

GIANT cement producer, Dangote Cement Plc has declared a whopping N144.844 billion as final dividend for its shareholders.
The most capitalized company’s listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) stated this in its consolidated statement of profit or loss for the year ended 31st December, 2016 released to the bourse in Lagos today.
The cement producing company declared a final dividend of N8.50 kobo per share to its shareholders as against N8.00 paid in 2015 financial period.
According to the result published this morning, revenue were up by 25 percent year-on-year to N615.1 billion.
However, profit before tax declined by 4 percent year-on-year to N180.9 billion due to a gross margin contraction of 1,160bps to 47.4 percent year-on-year and a 39 percent year-on-year
spike in opex to N119.3 billion.
Regardless of the decline in profit before tax, profit after tax grew by 78 percent year-on-year because of a positive result of N100.7 billion on the OCI line, a tax rebate of N5.7 billion and a positive result of N7.3 billion in minorities interest.
Unlike in the prior quarters of 2016 when unit volumes grew strongly, Dangote Cement unit volumes declined by 10 percent year-on-year to about 5.2 million metric tonnes (mmt), largely because of the 40 percent price increase taken in Nigeria in September 2016.
Consequently, unit volume for Nigeria, Dangote Cemnet’s largest market, declined by around 22 percent year-on-year (6 percent quarter-on-quarter) to about 3.1mmt during the quarter. In contrast, unit volumes for the non-Nigerian operations grew by around 19 year-on-year to about 2.1mmt. Although the firm used a higher proportion of imported coal as feedstock relative to low-pour fuel oil in fourth quarter 2016, the 40 percent devaluation of the naira and fx shortages still resulted in year-on-year contractions in gross margin. Going forward, the company’s plan to source coal locally from its mines in Kogi state should result in a reduction in its fuel costs.