Once again, the proposed listing of one of Nigeria’s most capitalized companies, Dangote Cement Plc, on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has been postponed till 2023.
Instead the company says it is focusing on increasing exports and boosting its foreign exchange reserves.
“The London listing is not something which will happen in the short to medium term,” Temilade Aduroja, head of investor relations at the Lagos-based company, said by email to Bloomberg. “We are focused on our export strategy and increasing our foreign-currency revenue”.
She disclosed that Dangote Cement, Africa’s biggest cement maker, will not be considering an IPO on the London Stock Exchange until at least 2023.
The report notes that Dangote, 63, who has a net worth of more than $14 billion, has long expressed his ambition for Dangote Cement to have a secondary London listing to diversify its ownership and gain access to cheaper funds on international markets. However, he has held back on the IPO for one reason or another. In 2019, he had reportedly stated that the listing would happen in 2019.
Nevertheless, Brian Egan, former chief financial officer, had, however, pegged 2020 as a more likely year for the IPO.
Nigeria’s biggest listed company by market value, Dangote Cement took advantage of a drop in yields in the domestic debt markets to raise 100 billion naira ($259 million) through commercial papers in May and April, the largest offering of its kind at the time.
The group said in July it’s looking to export clinker to 15 countries in Central and West Africa in a bid to boost revenue and resolve a scarcity of foreign exchange scarcity in Nigeria. The company is expected to see volume expansion in the third quarter following the easing of restrictions across the continent, “which bodes well for margins as higher realized prices are expected in Nigeria and the Pan-African region,” Sonia Baldeira, senior industry analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence said in a note earlier this month.
Agency reports
