The hopes of shareholders of BUA Cement Plc to receive robust dividend at the end of the current final year have been raised by the improved results recorded by the company for the nine months ended September 30, 2020.

BUA Cement, which is one of Africa's largest cement producers reported a revenue of N156.55 billion in 2020, showing an increase of 21 percent from N129.429 billion in the corresponding period of 2019.

Gross profit rose from N63.123 billion to N71.729billion. Selling and distribution expenses rose from N8.341 billion to N9.679billion, while administrative expenses rose from N6.103 billion to N7.034billion.

The company was able to reduce its net financing cost by 23 per cent from N3.719 billion to N2.874 billion. This enhanced the profitability as profit before tax (PBT) grew by 19 per cent to N59.484 billion from N50.186 billion. Profit after tax (PAT) grew faster by 24 per cent

from N43.253 billion to N53.567 billion.

When the company recorded a similarly improved performance for the half year endedJune 30, 2020, the Managing Director of BUA Cement, Yusuf Binji, had said that the continued impressive performance in 2020 despite the challenging operating environment occasioned by the covid-19 pandemic, was a pointer to the value and strength of the BUA Cement brand and product offerings as well as a nod to the excellent implementation of the company's Business Continuity Plan which ensured that BUA Cement was able to withstand the impact of the pandemic in the period under review.

"In a bid to further drive cost efficiencies and sustainability, we entered into strategic alliances for the supply of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) at the Kalambaina, Sokoto State and the management of our mining operations. Given these deliberate and strategic choices amongst other cost management efforts, we continue to combine development and innovation into our offerings and activities," Binji said.

According to him, in spite of the prevailing economic conditions, "we are quite optimistic about the future because it affords us not only with the opportunity to further evolve our business model but also provides an opportunity for accelerated development. We will continue to push to new markets aided by a focused distribution strategy."

Meanwhile, the stock market surged further as the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) rose 1.58 per cent to close at 29,437.60, while market capitalisation added N239 billion to close at N15.4 trillion.

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