Shareholders to get more returns as Dangote Cement expansion gains momentum

As shareholders of Dangote Cement meet today to approve the company’s 2014 financial results, indications have emerged that the investors will have a lot to be thankful for as a result of the massive expansion project being embarked upon by the company in 16 African countries, outside Nigeria.

Returns from the African projects are expected to start reflecting on the company’s account from this 2015 financial year. The directors have however recommended that a dividend payout of N6.00 per share be paid to all the shareholders for the 2014 financial year. This dividend payout will translate to a yield of 3.9 percent and payout ratio of 63.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the company’s new plants in Senegal and Cameroon have commenced operations. The cement plants in Ethiopia and Zambia are also expected to start production next month. The new Senegalese plant, located in Pout district, about 75 kilometers from Dakar, the country’s capital, is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs, with a total production capacity of 1.5 million tons annually.
With the new plant, the company hopes to improve the country’s cement production capacity with an additional 1.5 million tons, while serving an export market demand of two million tons along the Mali axis.

It would be recalled that the country head of Dangote Industries, Senegal, Luk Haelterman, disclosed that the Group has invested about $300 million in the cement plant, adding that actual production and sales started on January 10, 2015.
He said “in this country, Dangote will not only stop at producing cement, we also have helped beyond cement, which is the idea of the owner, to become a pan-African enterprise. Senegal is a market with over-capacity of cement, because it had two cement factories before now. But today, Dangote has become the biggest and best because we have and produce the 42.5R only, which is better than what we met on ground, which is the 32.5R’