[NIGERIA] Aliko Dangote’s salt-processing firm delivers record profits in Q1 2023

 NASCON Allied Industries Plc (NASCON), a salt-processing company led by Nigerian billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote, is on track to outperform analysts’ expectations this year, with profits exceeding $3.5 million in the first three months of its 2023 fiscal year.

NASCON disclosed in its financial statements for the first quarter period ending March 31, 2023, that its profit rose by 325.28 percent from N386.37 million ($840,000) in the first quarter of 2022 to N1.64 billion ($3.56 million).

The triple-digit percent increase in profit was driven by a 57 percent increase in revenue from N10.76 billion ($23.3 million) to N16.9 billion ($36.7 million) during the period under review, building on the impressive financial performance delivered in 2022 when its profit surpassed $11 million.

As a result of its excellent financial results, the company’s total assets increased from N44.4 billion ($96.4 million) to N59.1 billion ($128.1 million), while retained earnings increased from N13.25 billion ($28.77 million) to N18.93 billion ($41.1 million).

NASCON, Nigeria’s largest salt-processing firm, is a subsidiary of the Dangote Group, a pan-African manufacturing conglomerate founded by Africa’s richest man.

The primary activities of the company include the processing of raw salt into refined, edible, and graded salt, as well as the production of seasoning products and vegetable oil.

At the end of trading activities today, shares of the Dangote-led company closed at N14 ($0.0304), a 5.66-percent increase from its opening price on the Nigerian Exchange this morning, in response to its impressive financial performance in the first three months of 2022.

The 5.66-percent increase in NASCON’s share price on the Nigerian Exchange increased its market capitalization above N35 billion ($75 million), cementing its position as the 40th most valuable company on the Nigerian Exchange.

Dangote’s 62.2-percent stake in the company is currently worth $47.4 million at the current price level.