Dangote sees 53% pretax profit rise, Nigeria

Dangote Cement plc announced a NGN107.7bn (US$670m) profit before tax for the first half ended 30 June 2013.

According to the firm’s six-month financial result released to the NSE, the profit before tax rose by 52.8 per cent compared to NGN70.8bn recorded in the corresponding period in 2012.

Gross profit also increased, by 43.8 per cent from NGN91.9bn to NGN132.1bn, while operating profit moved up from NGN76.4bn to NGN111.1bn, indicating an increase of 45.4 per cent.

The company saw its sales rise by 29.4 per cent YoY, recording a total of 6.76Mt and more than double the growth rate of the Nigerian market as a whole – estimated at 14.2 per cent during the first half.

CEO DV Edwin was reported as saying:“We estimate our market share to have remained at about 62 per cent across the first half of 2013. Pricing remains steady across our operations. The strong growth we achieved was satisfied by additional output from the Ibese plant, which opened in the first quarter of 2012, and higher output from Obajana (the new Line 3 came on-stream in the first quarter of 2012). Furthermore we achieved this strong rate of growth despite the fact that our Gboko plant was mothballed during January. 

“At the same time, we are increasing our commitment to deliver cement directly to our customers and all of our plants substantially increased direct-to-customer deliveries during the period. Direct-to-customer deliveries are approaching nearly half of all dispatches.

“We are making good progress in Africa and investors will see good returns on our investments in new capacity across the continent.”