Lafarge Africa says donated over N500m towards fight against Covid-19

...will continue to focus on business resilience to maintain healthy balance ... commits to improving shares free float

Lafarge Africa Plc said it has donated about N500million towards various initiatives aimed at fighting Covid-19 pandemic.

Khaled El Dokani, managing director/ Country CEO of Lafarge Africa Plc disclosed this on Thursday September 17 during Lafarge Africa Plc Facts Behind the Figures (FBF) held virtually on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The Facts Behind the Figures is a platform created by The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to provide stockbrokers, investors, analysts, funds manager and capital market correspondents with market information about companies listed on the NSE.

Responding to questions, the cement maker said it is commited to increasingly free float of its shares on the NSE. It said it has very positive medium and long term view of the business in a competitive market. “We maintain a healthy utilisation rate”.

The most profitable segment of the business in H1 remains the cement business.

Cement industry is an important and key sector in the development of the economy. Economy is expected to shrink by 5.4 percent in 2020 according to IMF due to Covid-19 pandemic.

This is coupled with impact of drop in crude oil price and current FX liquidity challenges.

The expectations of stockbrokers is that Lafarge Africa Plc retains its position as a leader in its business and return to shareholders who bought the shares of the company. The share price stood at N13 on Thursday.

Lafarge Africa Plc leveraged the platform to make a presentation on its 2019 financials to capital market stakeholders and the company was honoured with NSE Digital Closing Gong ceremony.

Lafarge Africa net sales had dipped by 5 percent in H1’20 to N55.8billion as against N59.8billion in H1’19. Though net income rose by 60 percent to N15.2billion in H1’20 from N9.5billion in H1’19

“The current debt position is not a problem for us”, Dokani noted.

“Despite the impact of Covid-19 pandemic in H1 2020, medium to long term outlook remains positive”, he said.

“With the gradual easing of the lockdown by Federal Government, we will continue to focus on business resilience to maintain a healthy balance sheet while prioritising the health of our people, communities and other stakeholders”, the CCEO said.

“The implementation of our healthy, cash and cost initiatives has and would continue to deliver improvement in our performance”, Dokani said.