By Chioma Obinagwam
Lafarge Africa Plc. has said that its N131.62 billion Rights Issue witnessed a 100 per cent subscription.
The company disclosed in a regulatory filing at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), recently.
“All 3,577 Acceptance Forms recieved for the 3,097,653,023 Ordinary Shares were found to be valid under the terms of the Rights Issue and processed accordingly. The Rights Issue was therefore 100 per cent subscribed,” the company disclosed.
The company, had in 2017 disclosed its intentions to raise ₦131.65 billion through a rights issue of about 3.1 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at ₦42.50 per share.
The new shares pre-allotted to existing shareholders on the basis of five new ordinary shares for every nine ordinary shares held at the close of business on November 1, 2017.
The acceptance list opened on Friday, November 24, 2017, and ran till the close of business on last December 15, 2017.
According to the company, part of the proceeds will be used to cut its debt by around $270 million, almost halving its foreign currency exposure.
Lafarge Africa inherited a $507 million in shareholder loans and $88 million of third-party foreign currency debt when it acquired Nigeria’s third-largest cement manufacturer United Cement Company of Nigeria (UNICEM) in 2015.
This debt profile exposed the cement company to a heavy foreign currency loss after the Naira lost more than a third of its official value when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) depreciated the currency. This led to the company making a loss in Profit Before Tax(PBT) of ₦22.82 billion in its financial year ended 31st December, 2016.
Lafarge Holcim was in 2015 formed from a global merger of Lafarge and Holcim. Lafarge Holcim, the majority shareholder has a 71.4 per cent stake in the Nigerian unit is the world leader in building materials industry with a local presence in 90 Countries, over 100,000 employees and 374,000 million metric tons of installed capacity worldwide.
Lafarge, through the Rights Issue, have made history as the biggest successful Rights Issue ever made by a Nigerian company.
