Czech Republic: Lafarge Cement to use CZK379m profit for dividend

Czech Republic: Lafarge Cement to use CZK379m profit for dividend
26 June 2009


Czech cement maker Lafarge Cement will use last year’s CZK379.4m  (€14.6m or US$20.4m) profit for dividend payment, and each shareholder will get CZK332 per unit, the annual general meeting (AGM) of the company decided today.

The profit was around 10 per cent higher compared with 2007.

Last year, CZK333.75m was distributed among shareholders, or CZK292/share. Higher production and higher sales are behind the profit growth, said director Jan Votava. Construction grew considerably last year, and so did cement production, he added. Sales added around five per cent to CZK1.47bn.

Production costs increased, for instance, electricity prices were 11 per cent higher on the year, and the firm had to take cost-cutting measures.

Lafarge Cement cannot raise notably prices of its products because of pressure from importers, and so the price growth was rather symbolic compared with a growth in input prices, said Votava.

Cement production stood at a record 900,000t, with over 500,000t consumed on the domestic market and the rest exported to Germany and Austria in particular.

Share capital is CZK1.143bn. Lafarge Cement in Cizkovice, northern Bohemia, is 69.37-per cent owned by Societe de Developpement Industriel Lafarge of France. Austria’s Lafarge Perlmooser holds 27.75 per cent of shares.
Published under Cement News