BENUE CEMENT SETS N20 BILLION TARGET BY 2007
August 24th, 2006 Ogbuotobo Chuks || chuks@stockmarketnigeria.com
Ogbuotobo Chuks
With a little over two years of take over, the Benue Cement Plc has been reverted back to its original production capacity of 450,000 tonnes. Based on this, the chairman of the company, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has projected a profit before tax of N20 billion for its 2007 financial year. He anticipated this figure due to the likely impact of the on-going reactivation and expansion of the company’s operations.
The chairman, while on a facility tour in Benue State, said the company would make a profit of about N4.5 billion in its current 2006 financial year, predicated on the present working production capacity, adding that output will increase significantly as well as profitability by the second quarter of 2007. This is after expansion and upgrade has been completed on the facility.
Furthermore, he estimated that the production capacity of the company would reach 1.5 million tonnes by the start of 2007. Likewise, the company would make annual sales of about N60 billion when production capacity increases to 3 million tonnes per annum.
He assured shareholders that the company would start paying dividends as from this year, and that the company is being put on the path of sustainable profitability. By this, it is being hoped that returns will fully materialize in the years ahead.
For record purposes, Dangote Industries acquired federal government’s 35.39 percent equity stake in the company in 2000, when the company was moribund. Four years after, in February 2004, after taking full possession, Dangote Industries had to settle salary arrears and other creditors.
The company has employed the services of an Indian Technical Consulting Firm with over three decades experience in cement works.
Benue Cement Plc raised fresh equity funds from the capital market in 2005 through a rights issue of 1.98 billion shares at N3.50 per share. As at the end of trading last week, the company’s shares sold for N12.18.
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