Earnings improve, Tanga Cement notice indicates

What you need to know:

Tanga Cement Company Limited, trading at Simba has issued a cautionary notice, which indicates the improvement of book of accounts during the year ended December 31 last year, compared with similar period 2017.

Dar es Salaam. Tanga Cement has issued a cautionary notice to its shareholders, indicating improvement of earnings.

The company, which trades at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) as Simba, indicated that its operating profit and earnings per share were healthy.

The notice issued yesterday by its board chairman, Mr Lawrence Masha, came at a time when the company showed satisfaction that the next financial results might improve by at least 25 per cent from those of the previous period.

“The company is expected to publish its audited financial statement for the year to December 31, 2018 by no later than March 31 in line with DSE rules,” Mr Masha said in the notice.

Shareholders are accordingly advised to exercise caution when trading with the company’s securities at DSE.

According to Mr Masha’s notice, the company projected that the operating profit before interest and tax for the year to December 31, 2018 to be between 232 per cent and 248 per cent higher than that achieved in the year to December 31, 2017.

During the year to December 31, 2017, Tanga Cement Group lost Sh35 billion.

“Tanga Cement also expects the loss per share for the year to December 31, 2018 to be between Sh150 and Sh199 per share, being between 52 per cent and 64 per cent lower than 2017 losses,” according to the notice. “The Tanzanian cement market improved notably for the year to December 31, 2018. Tanga Cement significantly improved its trading results and pro-fitability while simultaneously increasing production and sales volumes.”

The financial information on which this trading statement is based has not been reviewed or reported on by Tanga Cement’s auditors.