Dangote Cement cedes N46b shares to S. African firm

By The Citizen

Dangote Cement Plc, the highest capitalised equity on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Monday drove the activity chart on the bourse, accounting for 256.59 million shares valued at N45.96 billion.

The unprecedented trading at the NSE was sequel to the uploading of Dangote Industries' 1.5 per cent of its 95 per cent shareholding in the cement company to South Africa's Public Investment Corporation (PIC) in a scheme scripted under the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF).

According to the Moscow based Renaissance Capital which handled the deal, the stake was sold at N179 per share, valuing the deal at N45.8 billion, $289 million, thereby giving it an implied market capitalization of $19.3 billion.

Dangote Cement is a fully integrated cement company and has projects and operations in Nigeria and 14 other African countries; Dangote Cement's current total production capacity in Nigeria from its three existing cement plants namely Obajana (10.25MMTPA), Ibese (6.0MMTPA) and Gboko (4.0MMTPA) is 20.25MMTPA.

The Obajana Cement Plant (OCP) located in Kogi State is reputed to be one of the single largest cement plants in the world with a combined capacity of 10.25MMTPA.

A fourth line, which add 3.0MMTPA to the existing capacity will bring the total capacity of Obajana to 13.25MMTPA by 2015.

Dangote Cement is also the biggest quoted company in West Africa and the only Nigerian company on the Forbes Global 2000 Companies.

Dangote himself is currently the 25th richest man in the world, worth $20 billion, according to Forbes' latest estimate.

The PIC, which manages pension fund for the South African government, is trying to diversify its investment out of its home market to tap into other faster growing African markets.

Last year, the PIC bought 19.58 percent of pan-African lender Ecobank Trasnational Incorporated (ETI) for $250 million, its first major investment outside of South Africa.

Weekly activities on the NSE opened yesterday on a bullish trend as investors staked N50.95 billion on 735.29 million shares in 6,897 deals.

The volume of shares traded grew by 49.11 per cent from the 493.13 million shares worth N5.40 billion traded in 6,852 deals on Friday.

The Managing Director, APT Securities and Funds Limited, Malam Garba Kurfi, linked the volume in Dangote Cement to part of divestment process by Alhaji Aliko Dangote to reduce his holdings.

Kurfi said that Dangote was directed to reduce his holdings in the company to 80 per cent, from the current figure of 93 per cent.

IHS trailed on the activity chart with 101.22 million shares worth N202.43 million, while Access Bank exchanged 44.01 million shares valued at N511.58 million.