Dangote Cement, Africa’s largest producer of the building material, said full-year profit rose 15% as a price cut in its home market of Nigeria
helped bolster sales and offset the effects of slowing economic growth.
Net income was 185 billion naira ($929.4 million) in the 12 months through December, compared with 160.6 billion naira a year earlier, the Lagos-based company said in a statement on Tuesday. Revenue increased 26% to 492 billion naira. Dangote Cement shares jumped 5% to their highest in two weeks at the close of trading.
Dangote Cement is seeking to boost sales and protect market share in Nigeria amid slowing economic growth, while rapidly expanding elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. The company cut prices in Nigeria in September, to boost consumption and compete with imports.
“New factories performed very successfully across Africa, gaining significant market share against long-established incumbents,” chief executive officer Onne van der Weijde said in the statement. “In our home market of Nigeria we increased sales by 3.2% against the worst economic crisis the country has faced in many years, which demonstrates that the Nigerian market is very robust.”
Dangote had a positive start to 2016, with a 55% increase in volumes during January and February, compared with 2015.
The 2015 earnings increase was largely driven by growth outside Nigeria, Lanre Buluro, an equity broker and analyst with Primera Africa Securities, said by phone from Lagos.
Dangote has added new factories in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia in the past two years and will open a plant in the Republic of Congo later this year.
The company last year announced plans to add 25 million metric tons of capacity through investments in sub-Saharan Africa and a new plant in Nepal. It’s projecting an increase in annual capacity to about 77.3 million tons of cement by the end of 2019, compared with 43.6 million tons last year.
In Nigeria, sales volumes rebounded after the September price cut and reached a record for the company in December, Dangote said in the presentation. Cement imports into Nigeria fell off rapidly during the fourth quarter and the company increased its market share to 68% in December, compared with 62% for the whole of 2015.
Economic growth in Africa’s most populous nation of more than 170 million last year is estimated to have eased to 3%, its slowest pace in more than a decade, after oil prices plunged. Dangote has also grappled with a shortage of foreign exchange in the country.
The company reduced net debt by 17.8 billion naira to 204.2 billion naira and its directors have recommended a dividend of 8 naira per share.
