frica’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote will receive about N293 billion as cash dividends as his flagship cement group, Dangote Cement Plc announced that it would be distributing about N340.8 billion to shareholders.
The Dangote-led board recommended payment of a dividend per share of N20 to shareholders for the 2022 business years after the cement group increased net profit to N382 billion. The total recommended dividend payout amounted to N340.81 billion.
Dangote, who owns about 86 per cent majority equity stake through his holding company, Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), will receive N292.97 billion in cash dividends by April 2023 when shareholders are expected to be paid electronically.
According to the board of the company, the dividends will become payable on April 14, 2023 to shareholders on the register of the company as at the close of business of March 30, 2023.
Key extracts of the audited report and accounts of Dangote Cement Group for the year ended December 31, 2022 showed sustained growths across major indices, with group turnover rising by 17 per cent from N1.38 trillion in 2021 to N1.62 trillion in 2022. Gross profit rose from N832.62 billion in 2021 to N955.43 billion in 2022.
The performance of the company was, however, moderated by considerable increase in expenses and finance costs. Administrative expenses rose from N64.35 billion to N79.88 billion. Selling and distribution expenses jumped from N191.65 billion to N295.23 billion. Operating profit thus stood at N585.88 billion in 2022 as against N582.49 billion in 2021.
Finance costs leapt to N130.37 billion in 2022 compared with N65.71 billion in 2021. This moderated pre-tax profit from N538.37 billion in 2021 to N524 billion in 2022. The group made tax provisions of N141.69 billion in 2022 as against N173.93 billion in 2021. Group net profit increased by five per cent from N364 billion to N382 billion. Earnings per share thus improved to N22.27 in 2022 as against N21.34 in 2021.
The balance sheet of the group also emerged stronger. Total assets increased from N2.39 trillion in 2021 to N2.62 trillion in 2022. Shareholders’ funds crossed the trillion naira mark to N1.08 trillion in 2022 as against N983.67 billion in 2021.
On a standalone, the parent company showed stronger performance with total sales rising by 21 per cent from N993 billion to N1.21 trillion. Company’s net profit increased by 6.0 per cent N403 billion in 2022 as against N381 billion in 2021. Company’s earnings per share rose from N22.42 in 2021 to N23.87 in 2022.
Analysts at Cordros Securities said they were impressed by the cement group’s “resilience in ensuring profitability amid the challenges that constrained operations across its Nigerian and Pan-African operations”.
“For the 2023 financial year, we believe higher cement prices will continue to sustain Dangote Cement’s topline growth. However, we see a further slump in volumes, as the constraints hampering production levels still linger, and our expectations that electioneering activities will weigh on demand, particularly in first half 2023,” Cordros Securities stated.
Dangote Cement is Africa’s leading cement producer with nearly 46Mta capacity across Africa. it is a fully integrated quarry-to-customer producer, with a production capacity of 29.25Mta in its home market, Nigeria. Obajana plant in Kogi state, Nigeria, is the largest in Africa with 13.25Mta of capacity across four lines; Ibese plant in Ogun State has four cement lines with a combined installed capacity of 12Mta and Gboko plant in Benue state has 4Mta.
In addition, Dangote Cement has operations in Cameroon (1.5Mta clinker grinding), Congo (1.5Mta), Ghana (1.5Mta import), Ethiopia (2.5Mta), Senegal (1.5Mta), Sierra Leone (0.5Mta import), South Africa (2.8Mta), Tanzania (3.0Mta), Zambia (1.5Mta).
Dangote Cement was the first Nigerian listed company to report its financial results using IFRS taxonomy. XBRL enables companies standardise the preparation, publishing, and exchange of financial information in a machine-readable format. It is mainly used by publicly listed companies which are required to use it by law, such as companies listed in the United States, Europe, and South Africa.
XBRL is a language for the electronic communication of business and financial data which is revolutionising business reporting around the world. It provides major benefits in the preparation, analysis, and communication of business information. It offers greater efficiency, improved accuracy, and reliability to all those involved in supplying or using financial data. It is already being put to practical use in several countries and implementations of XBRL are growing rapidly around the world.
Thenation