Dangote Cement invests $5bn in new factories
Dangote Cement Plc invested over $5bn to
build 44 million tonnes per annum cement factories in eight African
countries in 2015, the firm said in its 2015 annual report.
These countries are: Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Ghana.
The Chairman, Dangote Cement, Aliko
Dangote, was quoted in
the report as saying that the business model of
the company was based on rapid expansion at a time when the world’s
major cement companies were occupied with debt reduction, merger or
integration.
He said within some months of opening
factories in Senegal, Ethiopia and South Africa, the company had
achieved rapid gains in market share despite the presence of strong
incumbents.
Dangote said, “To put this rapid success
into context, we have invested more than $5bn to build this capacity,
but at the end of 2015, we had just $1bn of net debt.”
Meanwhile, as returns from African
projects lifted the earnings and profits of the company, its
shareholders have endorsed the pan African expansion of the company,
urging the management to make a foray into other countries in a bid to
make the company the foremost cement manufacturer in the world.
The endorsement came just as Dangote
assured the shareholders that the company would continue to deploy
strategies that would increase profitability in spite of the prevailing
harsh operating climate.
He explained that with the measures put
in place, the foreign exchange volatility would not affect the
operations of the company significantly more so when its other African
plants are operating maximally and yielding positive results to cushion
the effect of the scarce foreign exchange at home.
He added, “We have good strategy in
place, the volatility of the foreign exchange will not affect our
operations. I am not an advocate of devaluation of our currency, even if
that had happened, it would not have affected your company.
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