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Tuesday 9 September 2014

Dubai Company Buys N48bn Stake In Dangote Cement

Sovereign fund Investment Corp of Dubai (ICD) has bought

a 1.4 percent stake in Dangote Cement, Nigeria’s biggest

company by market capitalisation, for $300 million, a

Dangote spokesman said on Monday.



Stockbrokers in Lagos told Reuters 243 million shares of

Dangote Cement were transferred to ICD, which held stakes

in some of the emirate’s top companies, at N200 naira

each, a 12 percent premium to Dangote Cement’s price of

around N223 naira yesterday.



Commenting on the transaction, chairman of Dangote

Cement and Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote said: “We

are pleased to welcome such a prestigious investor -

Investment Corporation of Dubai to our growing list of

international, blue-chip shareholders. They share our vision

of Africa that will grow to become an economic powerhouse

in the coming decades as its people rise to become

prosperous members of the global economy.”



“Our products may be simple bags of cement but millions of

Africans will use them to build a continent that is rich in

opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors, like ICD, who

support them,” Dangote added.



“ICD is diversifying its portfolio ... into the West African

market through a minority stake in Dangote Cement. We

believe this bodes well for future investments into Nigeria

from the Middle East,” AkinbamideleAkintola, an Africa

equity sales executive at Renaissance Capital, said.



Dangote Cement is expanding with plans made to roll out

cement plants across Africa to reach an annual 62 million

tonnes capacity by 2017, up from a projected 42 million

tonnes this year.



It reported pretax profit of 107.1 billion naira ($659.4

million) in the first half, down 0.57 percent from a year ago,

on revenues of 208.9 billion naira.



Shares in Dangote Cement, which made up a third of

Nigeria’s stock market and hit a record high of 250 naira in

July, traded flat at 223 naira on Monday, valuing Nigeria’s

biggest company at about 3.97 trillion naira ($24.5 billion).

Dangote Cement faced competition in Africa from French

cement maker Lafarge which is combining its Nigerian and

South African businesses to accelerate growth on the

continent.



Last year, Dangote Industries sold a 1.5 percent of its 95

percent stake in Africa’s biggest cement producer to South

Africa’s Public Investment Corporation (PIC) for $289.3

million.



It is instructive to note that Middle East companies are

expanding in Africa as last week, Qatar National Bank

(QNB), bought a 12.5 percent stake in pan-African lender

Ecobank for about $200 million. (Reuters)



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