By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Food and Beverage Giant, Cadbury Nigeria Plc Friday announced it has applied for its shares to be placed on full suspension by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) following the company’s capital reduction exercise.

The company in a notice to the NSE said that in pursuant to a Board written resolution dated January 03, 2014, it was resolved that in compliance with the Board Resolution of the Company dated November 13, 2013, the directors were authorised to take all actions that are necessary to make the share capital reduction (“Capital Reduction”) effective, and that the register of members of the Company be closed with effect from Wednesday January 08, 2014.

According to Cadbury, the closure date is to enable the Registrars of the Company to determine the shareholders that qualify for the Capital Reduction as approved by the order of the Federal High Court, on December 30, 2013.

Prior to this time, at an Extra Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) held December 2013, Cadbury Nigeria sought to reduce its capital base by about N12 billion.

Under the capital reduction plan, Cadbury Nigeria will return excess capital of N11.9 billion to its shareholders by cancelling two out of every five ordinary (2 to 5) shares currently held by shareholders.

Consequently, it will reduce the share capital account by an amount equivalent to the par value of the cancelled shares and share premium accounts by about N11.27 billion.

Also, it’s expected that each shareholder will receive returned capital per cancelled share at N9.50 per share. However, Cadbury Nigeria will use the 30-day volume weighted average price of the stock at the NSE to pay for fractional shares that may arise from the transaction.