The weak growth in after-tax profit came as finance costs more than doubled to N451.2 billion driven by dramatic increases in interest expenses and net foreign exchange loss.
Dangote Cement, Nigeria's biggest company by market value, improved its net profit for the first nine months of the year by less than one per cent even though sales was up by as much as 69 per cent, according to its unaudited accounts issued Friday.
The weak growth in after-tax profit came as finance costs more than doubled to N451.2 billion driven by dramatic increases in interest expenses and net foreign exchange loss.
The cement maker incurred roughly 147 per cent more in gross interest expenses compared to the same period of last year in the face of soaring borrowing costs.
The Central Bank of Nigeria raised the benchmark lending rate by 8.5 per cent during the period to curb inflation.
Similarly, net profit took a blow from net foreign exchange loss, which jumped to N222.1 billion from N99 billion during a period in which the monetary authority in Nigeria devalued the naira by 31 per cent.
Revenue for the period under review advanced to N2.6 trillion from N1.5 trillion, even though sales volume only rose by 1.9 per cent.
It implies the big boost to turnover was due to hikes in the price of cement during the period rather than to an increase in volumes sold.
Nigeria contributes about three-fifths of the revenue of Dangote Cement, whose operations are cut across ten markets in Africa.
Fuel and power consumed, at 43.3 per cent, accounted for the lion's share of cost of sales, and surged by 109.4 per cent compared to the corresponding period of 2023.
Profit before tax went up by 0.4 per cent, while profit after tax climbed to N279.1 billion from N277.5 billion.
The corporation recorded a 74.9 per cent increase in exchange differences on translating net investments in foreign operations, helping lift its total comprehensive income to N965.8 billion from N670.1 billion.
Total assets for the period grew 40.1 per cent to N5.5 trillion, compared to last year. The stock has yielded roughly 50 per cent since the start of the year.
