Dangote Sugar, a subsidiary of the Dangote Group paid its lowest legal, consulting, and professional fee in the first half of 2022, and in the last five years, BusinessDay learnt.
In Africa’s biggest economy, it is a statutory requirement for all publicly listed companies to have their accounts vetted and audited by legal and independent auditors.
This is because legal and external auditors examine the bookkeeping records of the companies without the filter of personal relationships, which could cloud their judgment.
Some of the factors that determine legal fees include the size of the company, the industry in which the company operates, corporate risk, profitability, duration of the audit. amongst others.
For Dangote’s sugar, the firm’s legal cost declined to N82 million, a 36 percent drop from N128 million in the first half of 2021.
The legal fee constituted just two percent of Dangote sugar’s total administrative expenses in the first half of 2022.
Administrative expenses declined six percent from N5 billion in the first half of 2021 to N4.6 billion same period in 2022.
Employee costs, owning about 43 percent of administrative expenses, have the highest share of administrative expenses in half year 2022.
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Employee costs increased by 14.4 percent from N1.7 billion half-year 2021 to N2 billion same period 2022.
Dangote sugar expenses towards staff welfare declined by 94 percent from N272.7 million half year 2021 to N15.4 million same period 2022.
This was after an increase of 128 percent from N119.6 million half year 2020 to N272.7 million half year 2021.
Dangote’s sugar expenses for donation and scholarship declined by 93 percent from N545.5 million in half year 2021 to N37.5 million in half year 2022.
This was after a 1610 percent increase from N32 million in half year 2021 to N545 million in the same period 2022.
Auditors’ Fees and remuneration increased by 6 percent from N38.3 million half year 2020 to N40.5 million half year 2021.
Auditor fees further saw an increase of 11 percent from N40.5 million half-year 202o to N45 million half-year 2021
Expenses on petrol grew by 16 percent from N25.2 million in the first half of 2021 to N29.2 million in the first half 2022. This was after a 104 percent increase from N12.3 million in half year 2020 to N25.8 million half year 2021
Dangote sugar’s net cash flow generated from operating activities increased by 7 percent from N44 billion in the half year 2021 to N47.2 billion in the same period 2022. This was after a decline of four percent from N46.1 billion in half year 2020 to N44 billion in the half year 2021.
Dangote’s sugar recorded a negative cash flow from investing activities. The negative cash flow for half year 2022 however saw a 57 percent increase from N-18.6 billion in half year 2021 to N-8 billion in half year 2022.
Dangote Sugar recorded negative net cash used in financing activities, this increased by 37 percent from N-19.5 billion in half year 2021, to N-12.3 billion half year 2022.
