Dangote Cement’s Profit Rises 31% as Revenue Reaches N3.8 Trillion

Dangote Cement has announced a 31.2 percent increase in net profit for the nine months ending in September, compared to the same time last year. This growth was driven by a significant rise in sales, according to the latest results from Africa's largest cement producer.

The company reported a 19.6 percent increase in turnover, which hit N3.8 trillion. This boost came from better revenue from cement and clinker sales.

Nigeria, being its main market, made up 70.8 percent of total sales. The company’s operations across Africa contributed the remaining sales.

Dangote Cement has a production capacity of 55 million tonnes per year. It operates in 11 African countries, including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania, and Cote d’Ivoire among others.

Cost and Expenses

Cost of sales as a percentage of revenue dropped to 36.8 percent from 40.8 percent. This change helped lessen the effect of rising costs on gross profit.

Administrative expenses rose by 11.7 percent to N226.1 billion. Selling and distribution costs jumped by 23.6 percent to N618.9 billion, mainly due to higher transport costs.

Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA), which shows the core operating profit of a business, reached N1.8 trillion, up from N1.4 trillion last year.

This gives EBITDA a margin of 46.8 percent, compared to 45.3 percent in the same period last year.

Profit Growth

The company improved its profit by reducing finance costs to N120.8 billion from N286 billion, thanks to a sharp drop in interest expenses.

Profit before tax rose by 41.5 percent to N1.5 trillion. Profit after tax grew to N974.8 billion, up from N743.3 billion.

Total assets increased to N6.2 trillion, compared to N6 trillion at the end of last year.

Future Plans

Dangote Cement is set to complete a cross-border listing on the London Stock Exchange. It already has a primary listing in Lagos, where its market capitalisation was N22.6 trillion as of the start of trading on Wednesday.

The company has also appointed Goldman Sachs and UBS Group AG as bookrunners for this listing, which is scheduled for November. A Bloomberg report earlier this month confirmed these plans.

If everything goes as planned, it will be listed under the international commercial companies secondary listing framework, as the company mentioned in May.

Last month, FTSE Russell included Dangote Cement among the ten Nigerian companies added to its Frontier Index Series.