Shareholders of Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria Plc have unanimously approved a total dividend of N3.602bn proposed by the company as gross dividend for the year ended December 31, 2012.
This amount translates into a dividend payout of N1.20k per share, and represents an increase of 60 per cent over 75 kobo dividend paid the previous year.
The shareholders, who gave their approval at the company's 54th Annual General Meeting in Lagos on Tuesday, also commended the company for its performance in the year under consideration.
For instance, the National Chairman, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Mr. Boniface Okezie, said that it was commendable that the company was able to reward its shareholders better this year after the various investments it had undertaken the previous years.
He added that apart from the dividend payout, the cement company had also come up with improved performance in the financial year under consideration, adding that it was important that the company's management should ensure the bank performed better next year.
"We would like to advise the management to be involved in more expansion, especially in the areas of building depots in the south eastern and south-south part of the country to boost its business, and if this is done, it would ensure that our business grows at an impressive rate," he said.
The National Co-ordinator, Independent Shareholders' Association of Nigeria, Mr. Sunny Nwosu, also stated that the company had done better in the current year compared to its performance in the last few years.
The company recorded a 41 per cent increase in its turnover from N62.502bn in 2011 to N87.965tn in the year under consideration.
Its profit after tax also rose by 70 per cent from N8.6bn the previous year to N14.712tn in 2012, while its operating profit rose by 98 per cent from N13.252bn the year before to N26.264bn in the year under consideration.
Its result showed that the volume of cement dispatched for the year was 2.9 metric tonnes, up by 35 per cent in 2011.
The Chairman of the company, Chief Olusegun Osunkeye, said, "In order to maximise the return to our shareholders, we have as much as cash flow requirements will allow, accelerated the repayment of some of our bank loans in order to minimise interest expense.
"No additional loans were taken in 2012 and the increase in finance from N1.7bn in 2011 to N5.4bn in 2012 arose principally from the cessation of capitalisation of financing cost of the new cement and power plant following its inauguration for production at the end of 2011."
