By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Cement manufacturer, Dangote Cement Plc (DANGCEM) said it has appointed Dutch man, Onne van der Weijde as its new chief executive officer (CEO) to replace Devakumar Edwin, according to a Bloomberg report.

The report quoted Edwin as saying in an e-mailed statement that van der Weijde will take over the role from February 01.

According to him, the transition comes at a time when some of the large capital expenditure projects of Dangote Industries Ltd., which he handles, have started to materialize.

“Dangote Cement, Nigeria’s largest company could benefit from a predicted rise in cement prices in the country. Its projects, including a petroleum refinery, a petrochemicals complex and fertilizer plant, are now underway,” the report quoted Edwin as saying.

The report affirmed that the management change may also help pave the way for a London listing of Dangote Cement, quoting Aliko Dangote, the chairman of the Dangote Group in a 2013 statement that DANGCEM  will probably list its shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2014 or first three months of 2015.

Dangote said the share sale would dilute Dangote Industries Ltd.’s ownership in Dangote Cement to about 70 percent to 75 percent.

The report says DANGCEM has fallen 33 percent in the past year, compared with a 29 percent decline in the benchmark index of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) over the same period.

 At the end of trading on the Nigerian bourse last Friday, share price of the cement producer gained 0.50 kobo as it opened at N155.50 and closed N156.00 climbing up by 0.32 percent.