Lafarge N9bn By Mid 2018

Lafarge’s Integration To Generate Synergy Savings of N9bn Mid 2018

Lafarge Africa Plc, a leading ce­ment and building solutions provider, has reported its 2015 results, with revenue up two per cent at N267 billion.

Its South West operations grew by eight per cent following a number of initiatives such as the Key Distribu­tion Scheme, a strong route to mar­ket and solid capacity utilization.

The company in a statement said its Nigerian operation continued its strong growth with a 29 per cent in­crease over prior year. South African revenues grew by seven per cent in the last quarter. It said that Ashaka operations are normalized, following the security challenges in the region which affected demand for cement in the North. The company expressed optimism about the long term out­look for Ashaka, which is foreseen to return to strong growth in 2016.

Plant operations were mostly sta­ble with gas utilization in the 90s in South West and Mfamosing opera­tions. The South African cement op­erations returned to growth in Q4 with production up by 28 per cent compared to last year, following the kiln overhauls in Q1 2015.

The Group’s after tax profit de­clined by 20 per cent against what it was last year, when taking into account the one-off restructuring costs and the unrealized exchange impact on the Mfamosing opera­tions foreign currency borrowings from the parent group, LafargeHol­cim, the world’s largest building ma­terials company.

The company reported that the Nigerian operations of Lafarge Af­rica have been successfully unified and rationalized under one manage­ment team while being cognizant of the different stakeholders.

“Lafarge Africa has strengthened its foundation further by increasing its shareholding in Mfamosing op­erations from 35 per cent to 50 per cent, with full management con­trol and consolidation. Similarly, the shareholding in Ashakacem Plc also increased from 58.61 per cent to 82.46 per cent in the year,” the com­pany said in the report.

“The unified management team promises to drive efficiency and ultimately generate synergy savings of N9 billion for the group by mid-2018.”

Commenting on the results, the CEO, 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”.
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