Lafarge: Operational stability responsible for half-year increased revenue

Michel Pucherous, the chief executive officer of Lafarge Africa, says the N7.45 billion revenue increase recorded in at the end of the first half of 2018 can be attributed to operational stability.

For the January-June 2018 period, the company recorded N162.29 billion as against the N154.84 billion recorded in the January-June 2017 period.

“Our company saw strong market growth in Nigeria reflecting the end of the recession in the cement market. Cement demand has been on the rise since the beginning of 2018. We saw a 22% increase in volume, benefiting from export to Ghana which began in Q4 2017,” Pucherous said.

“EBITDA for our Nigeria operations was N19.1 billion and EBITDA margin of 32.2%, thanks to robust operational performance and continuous effort to reduce cash costs.

“The lack of large infrastructural projects impacted volumes in our South Africa operations, but revenues improved by 7.7% on the back of price increase in all segments in Q1 and FX translational effect. Aggregates, however, turned positive in Q2 despite low infrastructure spending.

“Success in the Nigeria operations has been due to operational stability, the success of the turnaround plan implementation and volume improvement. Strong sales in Nigeria increased volumes in Q2 2018 by 18.7% (inclusive of export) and 9.6% in ReadyMix.”

The board of the company also approved a rights issue of up to N90 billion subject to regulatory approval.