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Dangote Cement’s African projects already supporting growth — CEO

By BusinessNews Staff on May 18, 2015

The Chief Executive Officer, Dangote Cement Plc, Mr. Onne van der Weijde, has said the cement producer’s expansion projects in Africa have started contributing to its revenue growth.

Weijde said this following the release of the company’s unaudited results for the first quarter of 2015, which showed significant increase in profit.

The group is executing an expansion plan in 16 African countries outside Nigeria, which is expected to greatly increase its market share and returns when completed.

With some of the projects under the expansion plan yet to be completed, Weidje said the impacts of several of them were already being felt.

“Our African projects are now beginning to deliver revenue growth for the Group and even at this early stage we are seeing good potential in all the countries into which we are expanding,” he was quoted as saying in a statement from the group.

“Senegal has made an excellent start, Cameroon is poised for a strong entry into an exciting growth market and Sephaku Cement is clearly shaking up the South African market as the first new entrant in many years.”

He explained that although sales fell in Nigeria, Dangote Cement improved both revenues and margins, thanks to pricing actions in December following the collapse of the oil price and currency devaluation.

He added, “We are making a significant investment to improve our logistical capabilities and I am pleased to report a much more favorable fuel supply in the first quarter of 2015.

“We have invested for growth in Africa and each new factory that opens will generate good returns for shareholders as we deliver on our promise to become Africa’s leading cement company.”

Dangote Cement announced a gross profit of N74.7bn for the first quarter of 2015, indicating an increase of 10.5 per cent over the N67.63bn it reported in the same period of 2014.

The cement giant’s unaudited results for the three months to March 31, 2015 showed that its revenue – supported by the maiden contributions from non-Nigerian factories – rose by 10.8 per cent to N114.7bn from N103.57bn in the first quarter of 2014.

Also, the net profit rose by 44.1 per cent year-on-year to N68.6bn from N47.62bn, while the earnings per share surged by 45.7 per cent to N4.09.

The group’s cement sales volumes were up by 3.4 per cent to 3.8 million tons driven by contributions from South Africa, Senegal, Cameroon and new lines in Nigeria.

According to the statement, Dangote Cement plants are now operational in Zambia and Ethiopia. The new plants are expected to impact positively on the financials of the cement giant.

Dangote Cement is Africa’s leading cement producer with three plants in Nigeria and recently opened factories in South Africa, Senegal and Cameroon. It is a fully integrated quarry-to-customer producer with production capacity of 29 million tonnes in Nigeria at the end of 2014.

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