By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)– Sovereign fund Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) on Monday acquired 1.4 percent stake in Nigeria’s Dangote Cement Plc (DANGCEM) worth $300 million (48.7 billion naira) according to an announcement to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
According to the NSE, the deal was a total of 243,540,000 units of DANGCEM at N200 per share were traded today Monday, September 8, 2014 as an off- market trade. The N220 per share transfer is a 12 percent premium to Dangote Cement’s price of around N223 on Monday, according to stockbrokers at the Nigerian bourse.
‘’The trade was pre agreed between the seller- Dangote Industries Limited and the buyer- Investment Corporation of Dubai. The purchase and sale were executed by Meristem Securities Limited’’ the notice said.
Reports affirmed that Carl Franklin, Dangote Cement spokesman confirmed the sale.
Reuters quoted Akinbamidele Akintola, an Africa equity sales executive at Renaissance Capital as saying that 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,” he said.
Devakumar Edwin, CEO of Dangote Cement at its ‘’facts behond the figures’’ at the NSE last week said its expanding and plans 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.
The company reported a pretax profit of N107.1 billion in the first half (H1) of 2014, down 0.57 percent from a year ago, on revenues of N208.9 billion.
According to reports, shares in Dangote cement, which make up a third of Nigeria’s stock market, hit a record high of N250 in July of this year, traded flat at N223 on Monday, valuing Nigeria’s biggest company at about N3.97 trillion.
Last year, Dangote Industries sold a 1.5 percent of its 95 percent stake in South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation (PIC) for $289.3 million.
