By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, October 31 (Radarr Africa) – BUA Cement Plc reported a 60% rise in profit after tax to N463.1 billion for the nine months to September 30, 2026, up from N289.9 billion a year earlier, as revenue grew 26.5% and gross margin widened.
The figures come from the company’s unaudited results filed with the Nigerian Exchange, as reported by Billionaires.Africa on October 29. Revenue reached N1.09 trillion, while cost of sales rose only 8.8% to N466.4 billion.
That gap lifted gross profit 44.2% to N620.3 billion and pushed the gross margin to 57.1% from 50.1%. Operating profit rose 46.7% to N536.5 billion, and profit before tax rose 64.4% to N556.7 billion. Earnings per share increased to N13.68 from N8.56.
The third quarter was softer than the first nine months as a whole. Quarterly profit after tax was N138.2 billion, up 26.9% on the same quarter of last year, on revenue of N357.8 billion, up 28.5%. The tax charge for the quarter was N34.1 billion, more than double the prior-year level.
Billionaires.Africa noted that quarterly profit has declined in each quarter of 2026, from N176.4 billion in the first quarter to about N148.5 billion in the second and N138.2 billion in the third. Foreign-exchange gains also fell, to N12.6 billion from N20.8 billion.
Finance costs fell 36.7% to N35.5 billion, while finance income nearly tripled to N26.6 billion. Bank borrowings, however, rose to N613.1 billion from N469.4 billion at the end of 2025, and cash fell to N266.4 billion from N280.4 billion.
The company stepped up investment. Capital spending reached N127.5 billion in the period, compared with N79.6 billion for the whole of 2025. In January, BUA Cement signed a $240 million deal with China’s CBMI Construction for a sixth production line in Sokoto, northwest Nigeria. The 3-million-tonne line, with its own power plant, is due within 20 months and will lift installed capacity to 20 million tonnes a year, according to Billionaires.Africa.
Dividends paid in the period totalled N338.6 billion, including a final N10 per share for 2025. Total assets stood at N2.06 trillion and shareholders’ equity at N797.4 billion.
BUA Cement’s profit is a little under half that of Dangote Cement, which raised nine-month profit 31% to N974.8 billion, the report said. The report described Dangote Cement as Africa’s largest cement producer.
On the stock market, BUA Cement shares closed at N293.40 on the Thursday before publication, about 10% below the N325 peak reached after July’s first-half results. Billionaires.Africa put the company’s market value at N9.94 trillion, using an exchange rate of N1,365 to the dollar, which it converted to $7.28 billion.
Founder and chairman Abdul Samad Rabiu holds 56.03% of the company directly. BUA Industries Limited, part of BUA Group, holds 39.75%, and Rabiu holds a further 1.88% indirectly, leaving about 2.32% of the shares in public hands, the report said.
Rabiu, 66, also controls BUA Foods Plc, which is listed in Lagos. BUA Group has interests in cement, sugar, flour, pasta and real estate.
