Dangote Cement proposes 800kobo dividend following N188.3bn pretax profit

Dangote Cement plc, a fully integrated cement company with projects and operations in Nigeria and 14 other African countries has proposed dividend of N8 per share payable on April 21, 2016 to its shareholders.

The audited account of the company for the full year December 31, 2015 released Tuesday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) shows that its gross revenue rose by 25.6 percent to N491.7billion from N391.6billion in 2014.

Gross profit rose by 16.6 percent to N289.9billion from N248.6billion in 2014. The operating expenses (opex) of Dangote Cement plc rose by 0.3percent in 2015 to N86billion from N65.1billion in 2014.

Dangote Cement is the biggest quoted company in West Africa and the only Nigerian company on the Forbes Global 2,000 Companies.

Profit Before Tax (PBT) rose by 2percent to N188.3billion from N184.7billion in the preceding year 2014. Profit After Tax (PAT) rose by 13.7percent to N181.3billion from N159.5billion in 2014.

Investors swooped at Dangote Cement plc shares, evidenced in its price yesterday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange which rose by N6.75, from N135 to N141.75.

Dangote Cement plc, listed on the Premium Board of the Nigerian Stock Exchange under the building materials subsector has a market capitalisation of N2.536trillion as at Tuesday and shares outstanding of 17,040,507,405 units. Its share price recorded 52-week high of N188.68 and 52-week low of N122.90.

“Management has proposed a dividend per share of N8 which implies a dividend yield of 5.4percent and a payout ratio of 75percent. The proposed dividend per share is around 23percent higher than our forecast of N6.51 and around 12percent higher than consensus forecast of N7.14”, the Tunde Abidoye-led team of analysts at FBNQuest said in their first reaction to the results.

Dangote Cement’s current total production capacity in Nigeria from its three existing cement plants namely Obajana (10.25 Million Metric Tonnes Per Annum (MMTPA), Ibese (6.0MMTPA) and Gboko (4.0MMTPA) is 20.25MMTPA.

The Obajana Cement Plant (OCP) located in Kogi State is reputed to be one of the single largest cement plants in the world with a combined capacity of 10.25MMTPA. A fourth line which adds 3.0MMTPA to the existing capacity aimed to bring the total capacity of Obajana to 13.25MMTPA.