PPC positive profit alert, South Africa

South Africa’s leading cement producer PPC said Friday it is likely to post higher profits in the six months to March this year.

Headline earnings per share are likely to rise to be between 30 and 40 per cent higher than the past comparable period due to non-recurring items the company said in a trading statement released last week.

The company is continuing with its strategy of expanding outside of South Africa. Earlier this year, it entered the Algerian market by acquiring a 49 per cent shareholding in Algeria’s cement maker, Hodna Cement, for an undisclosed amount.

PPC is already constructing cement factories in Ethiopia, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). By 2017, about 40 percent of the company’s revenues will be coming outside of South Africa.