Dangote Cement Plc, has declared an increased revenue of N442.09 billion in the last nine months, the Company’s financial report released on Thursday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange indicated.
Revenue in the nine months ended September 30, 2016 was 20.97% higher than in the same period in 2015, despite the harsh operating environment, a development attributed to management’s strategy to leverage its pan-African status.
Dangote Cement increased revenue by N76.642 billion from N365.450 billion in 2015.
The foreign exchange crisis affected revenue, as it spent N231.684 billion on cost of sales during the review period as against N138.694 billion in 2015.
Spending on cost of sales affected Dangote Cement’s profit after tax of from N157.993 billion it made in nine months 2015 to end the current period with N133.521 billion.
Reflecting on its outlook, the Managing Director of the Company, Onne Van der Weijde, said the management is confident of delivering strong growth this year despite the challenging economic conditions facing Nigeria and the rest of Africa.
Dangote Cement achieved particularly strong sales growth in Nigeria but expects the final quarter to be lower because of the high Q4 base in 2015 and also because of the price increase that became effective on September 1, 2016.
Weijde said: “We do not expect to use LPFO again this year. From January 2017, our use of own-mined coal, sourced in Nigeria and paid for in Naira, will further improve margins and significantly reduce our need for foreign currency.
“Our focus will be to improve margins through cost controls and the adjustment of prices. We have new capacity coming on stream in Congo and Sierra Leone and expect Tanzania to increase its market share in the coming months.
“Foreign exchange constraints in Nigeria have made us reconsider the pace of our expansion and we now believe that a longer-term building programme will balance our ambition for growth with obtaining foreign currency in this difficult environment.”
The Cement Company’s results showed that profit before tax fell by 38% year on year to N23.8 billion while profit after tax grew by 147% year on year to N68.3 billion.
