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Investors snap up Twiga shares

Twiga Cement.

What you need to know:

  • The Dar es Salaam-based cement manufacturer transacted a total of 2,005,000 shares on Friday at a weighted average price of Sh2,500 to bring its daily turnover to Sh5.012 billion. Of the shares, 2 million were sold on two pre-arranged deals and were primarily bought by foreign investors who accounted for Sh5.022 billion of the day’s turnover.

Dar es Salaam. Recent positive developments within Tanzania Portland Cement Company (TPCC) - which trades as Twiga – have sent good news to investors, forcing them to inject billions of shillings into the firm’s equities at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE).

The Dar es Salaam-based cement manufacturer transacted a total of 2,005,000 shares on Friday at a weighted average price of Sh2,500 to bring its daily turnover to Sh5.012 billion. Of the shares, 2 million were sold on two pre-arranged deals and were primarily bought by foreign investors who accounted for Sh5.022 billion of the day’s turnover.

TPCC also transacted some minimal number of shares on Thursday and Wednesday that brought the company’s contribution to the weekly turnover to Sh5.017 billion which was equivalent to 73.3 per cent of the week’s Sh6.84 billion turnover.

“This is directly linked to a recent profit and dividend announcement…the investors – who bought the shares in two pre-arranged deals – may also have been encouraged by the company’s attractive growth rate during the past few years,” said the Zan Securities chief executive officer, Mr Raphael Masumbuko.

The board of directors for TPCC has proposed a Sh306 per share which is 14.6 per cent increase from the Sh267 that was issued from the 2014 proceeds, according to the firm’s audited financial statement.

“The proposed dividend includes two interim amounts of Sh95/share and Sh111/share paid in October 2015 and February 2016 respectively…The last dividend of Sh100/share will be paid on/about June 30, 2016,” the company’s statement – which was published in newspapers late last month - reads. Twiga Cement has had a smooth ride throughout 2015, raising its sales by a cool 22 per cent compared to 2014 figures, thanks to increased capacity and production efficiency among other factors.

With increased sales, revenues grew by Sh44.6 billion to reach Sh288 billion in 2015, sending the net profit up by three per cent compared to 2014 figures. It reached Sh56.2 billion in 2015.

TBL, CRDB and TOL were also some of the most active counters at the DSE last week. TBL accounted for Sh947.67 million which was equivalent to 13.8 per cent of the week’s turnover.