Lafarge Africa declares N3 dividend, 1 for 10 bonus share

L-R: GMD/CEO, UBA, Phillips Oduoza; Chief Executive Officer, MoneyGram, Alexander Holmes; GMD/CEO Designate, UBA, Kennedy Uzoka and Executive Vice President, Africa, Middle East, Asia pacific, Russia and CIS, MoneyGram, Grant Lines, during a strategic partnership enhancement meeting between MoneyGram and UBA in Lagos recently.

Lafarge Africa Plc, has announced a dividend of N3.00 and one for 10 bonus to shareholders who invested in the cement manufacturing company.

The company in its audited results for the year ended December 31, 2015, recorded a two per cent growth in revenue, reaching N267 billion from N260.8 billion recorded in 2014 despite a challenging transitional market.  

Contribution of ReadyMix product in revenue generation continued its strong growth with a 29per cent increase over prior year.

The group profit after tax declined by 20per cent from N33.5 billion in 2014 to N26.99 billion in 2015 as a result of one-off restructuring costs and the unrealized exchange impact on the Mfamosing operations foreign currency borrowings from the parent group, LafargeHolcim.

With decline in profit, the group’s total assets rose by nearly nine per cent from N415.9 billion in 2014 to N453 billion in 2015 while total equity moved from N175.6 billion to N176 billion in 2015.

In a statement, The Chief Executive Officer, Lafarge Africa Plc., Mr. Peter Hoddinott, said, “Our company continues to deliver good performance with significant upsides to come as new cement and power generation capacities come on stream and synergy benefits from the merger in Nigeria flow through.

“Our business integration process has been successful and as a Company we are optimistic to deliver improving performances in 2016 and beyond, improving value to our shareholders.”

On future prospect, the management of Lafarge Africa foresees robustly growth in the cement business in 2016 behind a strong Individual Home Building Segment.

The company noted that the Federal Government has also shown strong indications to support Infrastructure growth in the coming year.

“Lafarge Africa will be able to leverage its unique footprint in 2016 with Ashaka returning to growth, ReadyMix securing high volume contracts to support its 8 existing, and new plants to be commissioned as well as the new 2.5 million tons cement line due to be commissioned in Mfamosing in second half of 2016.

The South African market will remain challenging, but Lafarge Africa will leverage the 2015 investments within the cement operations with a revamped sales team and route to market. In aggregates, the company will continue to benefit from its strong network delivering results with two new quarries, being opened in the Gauteng market and Ready-Mix growth. Overall, new strategies in penetrating retail, new geographies and the technical segment are expected to allow Lafarge Africa volumes to grow above a flat market in all three product lines.

“Overall, the Lafarge Africa group will continue to seek innovative ways of improving product offerings in the Nigerian cement, concrete and aggregate market in 2016,” the company explained in its statement.