By InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has teamed up with Kaduna and Kebbi two (2) Nigerian states to bid for a majority stake in Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) Limited, a Reuters report on Thursday quoted Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State.
According to the report, governor El-Rufai disclosed that Kaduna and Kebbi, along with Bank of Industry (BoI) and Dangote had submitted bids for the stake which the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) is looking to sell.
The report added that PAN, the Nigerian assembly plant located in Kaduna State, has Peugeot Citroen PEUP.PA as its technical partner with a capacity to assemble 240 cars a day, PAN said on its website.
“We have submitted bids for the carmaker … with Aliko Dangote on board together with BoI, Kebbi and Kaduna State, we are confident our bid will sail through,” Reuters quoted El-Rufai as telling a conference.
The report affirmed that Jean-Christophe Quemard, Peugeot’s executive vice president for Africa and the Middle-East, met President Muhammadu Buhari in November to discuss reviving local production; which Buhari is keen to promote a “Made in Nigeria” industrial policy.
Reuters says PAN Limited was set up in 1972 as a joint venture between the Nigerian government and France’s Peugeot, with an annual production of 90,000 cars by the 1980s.
But operations nosedived and debt racked up shortly after the government sold its stake to local core investors in 2006, as cheap, imported, second-hand vehicles from Asia and poor manufacturing infrastructure hurt profits, according to Reuters.
AMCON owns 79.3 percent of PAN Nigeria Limited, having bought the company’s debt and taken some as equity.
This is coming on the heels of the Nigerian government pushing automakers to build cars locally, ordering local car distributors in 2014 to come up with plans for new assembly plants and threatening to impose prohibitive import duties.
The report further affirmed that rival automakers, Renault-Nissan, South Korea’s Kia Motors (000270.KS) and Germany’s Volkswagen have announced plans to assemble vehicles in Nigeria.
Also, it says Ford Motor Co, U.S carmaker has partnered with a local car dealer to set up a 5,000 annual capacity assembly plant in Nigeria in November and plans to produce 10 vehicles a day initially for the domestic market and then develop an export trade across West Africa.
