Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Dubai Company Buys N48bn Stake InDangote 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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