Dangote Sugar delivers 9.3% profit growth to N202.78bn in H1 2023

Dangote Sugar Refinery plc. closed the first half of the year with a 9.3 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue to N202.78 billion  from N185.46 billion generated in H1 2022, according to its unaudited results for the period ended June 30, 2023.

The leading producer of refined sugar in Nigeria said its topline performance was driven by growth in sales of sugar per 50kg, retails, and molasses to N194.19 billion (+8.3 per cent y/y), N5.86 billion (+70.8 per cent y/y) and N1.54 billion (+7.9 per cent) respectively in H1 2023 while freight income declined by 13.2 y/y to N1.19 billion in the period.

Quarterly, the company’s revenue depreciated by 1.6 per cent q/q to N100.56 billion in Q2 2023 from N102.26 billion in Q1 2023 as the realities of inflationary pressures kicked in.

Cost of sales decreased considerably by 9.3 per cent y/y to N144.60 billion in H1 2023 from N146.64 billion in H1 2022,resulting in a growth of 7.9 percentage points in its gross profit margin to 30.4 per cent from 22.5 per cent y/y in H1 2022.

The company’s operating expenses (adjusted for depreciation) closed the period at N4.66 billion to gain 24.1 per cent y/y from N3.76 billion in H1 2022. Thus, the company’s OPEX margin settled at 2.3 per cent in H1 2023 from 2.0 per cent in H1 2022. Depreciation and Amortisation was up by 18.0 per cent y/y to N4.90 billion from N4.15 billion in H1 2022.

Dangote Sugar’s Other Income declined by 51.90 per cent y/y to N145 million from N301 million in H1 2022 while its Earnings Before Tax (EBIT) appreciated by 53.0 per cent y/y to N52.20 billion in H1 2023 from N34.12 billion in H1 2022.

The devaluation of the nation’s currency largely contributed to the jump in the company’s Finance Cost as it came in at N90.66 billion from N7.31 billion in H1 2022.

Despite a 148.9 per cent y/y growth in the company’s finance income  from N1.95 billion in H1 2022 to N4.85 billion in H1 2023,it was unable to offset the decline in net finance cost which closed at N85.81 billion in H1 2023 from N5.36 billion in H1 2022.

However, the company’s change in fair value adjustment resulted in an inflow of N2.25 billion, a 31.6 per cent y/y growth from N1.71 billion in H1 2022.

Overall, Dangote sugar reported a Loss Before Tax of N31.37 billion compared with a Profit Before Tax of N30.46 billion in H1 2022 and a Loss After Tax of N27.99 billion in H1 2023 against Profit After Tax of N20.97 billion in H1 2022.