By Favour Nnabugwu

Ashaka Cement Plc has announced a profit before tax of N4.39 billion in the financial year ended December 2010. This represents an increase of N85.23 per cent over the N2.37bn recorded in 2009.

This is coming as Lafarge Cement, the core investor of the company, announced its decision to acquire additional 8 per cent share of the company, jerking the total share of the investor to 58.66 per cent ownership.

Chairman of the company, Mr. Emmanuel Ikwue, who stated this in Abuja at the 36th Annual General Meeting of the company, said the gross turn over of the company increased to N19.15bn in 2010 compare to N17.19bn in 2009 representing an increase of 11.40 per cent.

Ikwue who also announced his resignation after nineteen years of service, explained that the company’s production volumes had increased to 700 Kt in the year under review as against 649 in 2009 while sales volume also increased from 647 Kt to 684Kt.

He announced that the board has approved the payment of 30k dividend to shareholders for the year ended 31st December 2010 noting that withholding tax will be deducted at the time of payment.

Ikwue said “we firmly believed that our country has robust long term prospects and we are moving in the right direction through escalating key demand drivers. Government both at the state and federal levels would still be the major consumer of cement in the medium and long term.”

The Chairman said “we expect significant increase in capital formation by enhanced spending on housing and transportation including road, rail and port construction.

“We have seen that public-private partnerships in real estate development are growing with the government signing 80 per cent deals to spur development of affordable housing in Nigeria. The private sector, either at organised level through individuals, is increasingly becoming major provider of housing in Nigeria.”

He noted that the ban imposed on the importation of cement has had positive impact in the sector and the company would seize the opportunity to increase the capacity of the plant to meet the growing demand of cement in Nigeria, particularly in the Northern part of the country,

He, therefore, called on government to further intensify efforts in creating enabling environment that will attract the necessary investment in the cement sub-sector of the economy

Mohammed Daggash, Managing Director of the Company, who also served the company for eleven years, was optimistic about 2011, that the emergence of new governments at both the national and the state levels, will continue with infrastructure development.

He said the management will diligently pursue costs reduction measures and move the company into higher profitability during the next financial year.