Zimbabwean group Lafarge Cement reported flat full-year earnings as a tax expense offset strong revenue growth, and said it expected further sales growth as the economy recovers.
"Profit attributable to shareholders remained largely the same ... despite increased sales revenues, due to a tax expense incurred for the year, as opposed to a tax credit in 2009," chairman Muchadeyi Masunda said on Thursday.
The unit of the French company Lafarge said basic 2010 earnings per share were flat at 0.03 cents.
The company was hit by a $1.05 million tax expense which lowered profit to $2.68 million from $2.69 million in 2009.
Revenue rose 47 percent to $41.7 million, boosted by a 55 percent rise in domestic sales.
Masunda said local demand for cement would remain strong, anchored by growth in mining and construction.
Zimbabwe's economy, ravaged a few years ago by hyperinflation which reached 500 billion percent, grew in 2009 under a unity government led by President Robert Mugabe and bitter rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Inflation slowed to 3 percent last month after the coalition government adopted multi-currencies two years ago.
Finance minister Tendai Biti said early this month annual inflation would end 2011 at 4.5 percent and reiterated the economy would grow as much as 9.3 percent.
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