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By Moses Ebosele –
For the second quarter ended June 2016, Lafarge Africa Plc has recorded a pre-tax loss of N28billion.
In its report to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday, the company attributed the loss to dwindling foreign exchange which impacted its operations negatively.
The company explained that within the period, there was 30 per cent year-on-year reduction in sales to N54billion.
Experts at FBN Quest Research explained that the company has close to US$600 million in forex denominated loans, adding that its debt-to equity ratio is now up to around 1.6x from 0.9x previously.
FBN Quest said: “Excluding the exchange rate loss, we note that core operations and volume dispatches were also hampered by gas supply disruptions following vandalism to gas supply infrastructure. The gas utilisation for Ewekoro II dipped to as low as 40 per cent from around 70 per cent previously during the quarter”.
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