Twiga Cement shareholders approve Sh18bn dividend

Dar es Salaam. Shareholders of the Tanzania Portland Cement Company Limited (TPCC), which trade as Twiga Cement, will share a total of Sh17.99 billion from the company’s 2017 profit as the cement maker braved competition to maintain its dividend payment policy.

The money is equivalent to Sh100 per share as final dividend for the year.</p></div><div><p>During the year, the company paid Sh10.79 billion – equivalent to Sh60 per share - as final dividend for financial year 2016 in June 2017.

It also paid the first interim dividend of Sh21.59 billion – equivalent to Sh120 per share - in October 2017 and second interim dividend of Sh12.59 billion – equivalent to Sh70 per share - in February 2018.

The TPCC managing director, Mr Alfonso Velez, told the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday that the firm traversed the year 2017 with some profits despite the fact that it was marred by large over-capacities and stiff competition.

“Production and sales achieved new records though prices moved further downwards along the first half of the year to reach the lowest levels ever seen. In addition, the cement plant had some minor unexpected repairs in the second half of the year due to severe rains during the month of May,” he said.

The company’s operating profit increased by three compared with the previous year.

However, this was mainly due to the sale of non-operational assets which offset the impact of dropping cement prices and competition in the company’s income statement.

The cement industry in Tanzania includes six integrated plants and several grinding facilities with production capacity of about over 8.5 million tonnes, industry players say.

However, according to Mr Velez, demand for cement in the local market reached 4.5 million tonnes, being a measly 0.2 million tonnes more than the 2016 level. Looking forward, the company believes it will maintain its profitability record despite low cement price

Source: The Citizen

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